SIU invokes mandate after OPP-involved shooting on Highway 401 in Cambridge

Drivers expand on Friday's 401 backup Drivers, finally out of the hours long Friday backup on the eastbound 401, share their thoughts. Hannah Schmidt reports.

Highway 401, through Kitchener eastbound to Cambridge, was brought to a standstill Friday due to an investigation into a police-involved shooting.

Now the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating.

The SIU told CTV News that an officer shot and wounded a 45-year-old man during a traffic stop on the eastbound 401, early Friday evening.

"At approximately 5:20 p.m., Oxford OPP officers stopped the driver of a vehicle eastbound on Highway 401 in the area of Homer Watson Boulevard in relation to an investigation," a spokesperson with the SIU told CTV News in an email.

That investigation began earlier in the day around 4:30 p.m. after officers responded to a report of someone jumping out of a moving vehicle on Oxford Road 6 and then being placed back in the vehicle.

The OPP said officers caught up with the vehicle along the eastbound of the 401 and during that interaction an officer fired their gun, leaving the driver of the vehicle hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

The eastbound lanes were closed between Cedar Creek Road and Homer Watson/Fountain Street South.

Multiple drivers told CTV News there were significant backups on the highway, with many of them stuck for hours, turning around and driving the wrong direction of the highway, to try and get back to Cedar Creek Road.

The SIU said three investigators and two forensic investigators have been assigned to the case.

The SIU is urging anyone who may have information about this investigation, including video or photos, to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529 or online at: https://siu.on.ca/en/appeals.php.