SIU clears officers who killed robber

Ontario’s police watchdog says it will not charge officers who fatally shot a 25-year-old man during a hostage-taking at a Vaughan bank.

The Special Investigations Unit says that in December 2017, a man armed with what appeared to be a bomb and a semi-automatic handgun walked into a Royal Bank of Canada branch in Vaughan and took the bank employees and customers as hostages.

The SIU report says the suspect threatened to detonate a bomb. The suspect also made an employee tie her co-workers to chairs.

The report also says the suspect was in the bank for about an hour.

The suspect asked a customer to call police and inform them that he was requesting crystal meth and to put U.S. President Donald Trump on the phone.

The SIU says York Regional Police reported that authoriza- tion was given to “eliminate the threat” posed by the suspect, and he was shot and killed by police.

SIU director Tony Loparco wrote in the report that he found the lethal force used was justified and there is no need to lay charges.

The SIU is an arm’s-length agency that is automatically called in to investigate reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.