Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has cleared three Peel police officers of any wrongdoing in the shooting death of a 44-year old man in late February after officers responded to a domestic disturbance call in Mississauga.
Police responded to the call around 12:30 a.m. on February 28. A woman called 911 to report that her husband was going to “harm her and her children,” the SIU said in a report released Friday.
In subsequent calls over the course of around ten minutes, the woman also informed police that her husband had firearms and was in a “distressed mental state.”
Once officers arrived on scene they located the man and pursued him near Erin Mills Parkway and Dundas Street W. During their pursuit, police deployed a taser but it did not incapacitate the man. Shortly after, the man fired “at least one shot “in the direction of the officers, the report said.
Multiple exchanges of gunfire followed between the man and officers until he fell to the ground, according to the report. Officers found him unresponsive and attempted CPR. He was pronounced dead shortly after 1 a.m.
A handgun was recovered next to the man, the report said. An additional handgun that he had discarded during the police pursuit was was also retrieved.
Police had previously told CBC that the man was known to police and he was not licenced to own guns.
The SIU report noted that an autopsy found the man had sustained numerous gunshot injuries and died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Use of force justified: SIU director
In his decision, SIU director Joseph Martino said the officers involved “were at all times engaged in the lawful exercise of their duty” and that their use of gunfire “constituted reasonable force.”
He said that because the man was believed to be in possession of multiple firearms, “officers were duty bound to do what they could” to take him into custody as “quickly as possible.”
“One cannot fault the subject officials for choosing to meet an immediate risk of death with a resort to lethal force of their own,” the decision said.
During the investigation, only one of the three officers in question agreed to be interviewed and provide notes to the SIU. The other two declined, as is their legal right, according to the report. Numerous other officers and eyewitnesses who were on scene were also interviewed.
The SIU is an independent agency that investigates the conduct of police officers in incidents that may have resulted in death, serious injury, the discharge of a firearm or allegations of sexual assault.