Police not facing charges after man dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound in Mississauga: SIU

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Published June 5, 2020 at 2:17 pm

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The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says Peel Regional Police officers will not be facing any criminal charges in connection with the death of a 37-year-old man who shot himself during a pursuit in Mississauga.

The SIU report says that on Aug. 25, 2019, a man called 911 and said that his son had assaulted him with a gun and was currently fighting with and pointing the gun at his brother. 

The SIU says officers were dispatched to the residence on Edgeleigh Avenue and when one officer arrived, he spoke to the brother and learned that the man with a gun had run down an alleyway. Additional PRP police officers, including a canine unit, arrived to conduct a search for the man, the report says.

The SIU says that after a report was received that the man might be in a backyard on Ogden Avenue, three police officers began to track him. The dog led the officers to a backyard on Ogden Avenue, which had a number of sheds and a deck. The report says that when an officer directed his dog to check a stairwell to the house, the dog appeared to want to return to the deck. 

The report says the officer alerted other officers that the man was under the deck and armed.

According to the report, officers surrounded the deck and asked the man to drop his gun, with one officer pointing his rifle under the deck at one point. 

The report says two officers repeatedly directed the man to put down the gun, pausing between each command to wait for a response. According to the report, the man did not acknowledge that the police were present and remained silent. A short time later, the man, who had reportedly been holding the gun to his temple, pulled the trigger. 

The SIU says officers could not immediately provide assistance because the man was still holding the gun and they feared he might twitch and shoot again. Both officers reportedly kept pointing their guns at the man beneath the deck. 

The report says that within seconds, another member of the tactical team entered the backyard and assisted in pulling the man out and working to provide medical assistance.

Shortly thereafter, the man was transported to hospital, but died of his injuries.

“On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the [man’s] death,” Joseph Martino, director of the SIU, wrote in the report. 

Martino wrote that the offence considered in this case was criminal negligence causing death and that the SIU examined whether or not there was a “marked and substantial departure” from the level of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in the circumstances. 

Martino says that from all of the evidence, it is clear that no police officer discharged their firearm at any time during the incident.

“Unfortunately, the [man], acting of his own accord, chose to end his life when he was located. It appears on all of the evidence that the [officers] acted with prudence and exercised due care and caution in not immediately approaching the [man] under the deck while he was still armed with a firearm and posed a danger to the officers. Within seconds of the police locating the [man], however, and before they could do anything more than direct him to drop his weapon, the [man] acted quickly and decisively to end his life.”

Martino said it was reasonable for the officers to wait a few seconds before attempting to bring the man out from under the deck, as he was still holding a firearm. 

“Furthermore, there is no evidence that any life-saving measures, had they been begun seconds earlier, would have saved the [man]’s life in any event,” he writes.

“On this record, while the death of the [man] was unfortunate, I am satisfied that the level of care exercised by the [officers] fell within the limits prescribed by the criminal law. Accordingly, there is no basis for proceeding with charges in this case and the file is closed.”

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