Northern Ont. man who bought rifle illegally fired at police before he was taken down

Ontario Provincial Police recovered these three rifles following the shooting in Latchford on Oct. 5, 2025.

An investigation by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit details what happened after a heavily armed and mentally unstable man bought a rifle in Sudbury, then exchanged fire with police in Latchford before he was shot and taken into custody.

The incident began Oct. 2, 2025, when the 34-year-old man came to Sudbury to buy a gun and ammunition from a seller in the city. After the transaction, the seller realized he forgot to ask the man for his Firearms Possession and Acquisition Licence.

When he called the man to confirm, he refused to produce the document and instead “commented that he was a perpetrator of genocide and a threat to civilization.”

The seller then called Greater Sudbury Police, telling them he had sold a semi-automatic rifle and 180 rounds of ammunition to the man.

Sudbury police then contacted Ontario Provincial Police for help in finding and arresting the man, who, it emerged, was a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces.

“With the assistance of geocoordinate data from the complainant’s cellphone and pickup truck, police ascertained that he was located in the area of Highway 11 and Roosevelt Road (in) Latchford,” the SIU’s incident narrative said.

“Police personnel made their way to the area and set up a checkpoint.”

The pickup truck approached the checkpoint around 4:15 p.m. Oct. 3, but turned around and fled when the man saw police.

“An OPP helicopter crew observed the pickup truck stop and the complainant exit the vehicle,” police said.

“The complainant accessed a number of firearms from the back of his truck and entered the bush. The crew relayed this information to OPP officers on the ground.”

Officers searched the bush for the man, but he was wearing camouflage, making it harder to spot him.

The search continued until the morning of Oct. 4, when police saw a bushfire near Straight Lake, which they believe the man had started.

A police dog and his handler were taking part in the search when the canine came into contact with the man.

“The complainant came across (the police dog) when off leash and fired at the dog multiple times,” the SIU said.

Police dog shot and wounded

The dog “suffered a gunshot wound to an ear … Officers observed the complainant near railway tracks heading towards Highway 11.”

He was cornered in an area near Roosevelt Road on Highway 11. Officers in an armed response vehicle (ARV) broadcast an order for him to give himself up.

Other officers on the scene were trying to get into the ARV when the man began shooting at them. At that point, one of the officers inside the vehicle got out and returned fire. Another still inside the ARV did the same through a gun port in the ARV.

“The complainant suffered gunshot wounds to the right arm,” the SIU said.

“His brachial artery was seriously damaged and his right distal radius, humerus and elbow bones fractured. He was arrested, taken to hospital and held there under the authority of the Mental Health Act for paranoid psychosis.”

In his decision, SIU director Joseph Martino said the actions of police that day were both reasonable and legal.

“The complainant was unlawfully in possession of multiple firearms with which he intended to do harm,” Martino wrote.

“His arrest was a matter of pressing public interest. The OPP deployed significant resources to the area, including two TRU teams, a helicopter, canine units, a drone and ARVs. Throughout their search efforts, officers attempted to communicate with the complainant with loudspeakers to de-escalate the situation.”

Police only fired on the man after he had shot the police dog and fired at the officers.

“His immediate incapacitation was necessary to protect the lives of those two officers,” Martino wrote.

“Nothing short of the stopping power of a firearm would suffice in the circumstances to deal with the threat. Indeed, whether the complainant’s wounds are attributable to one or both subject officials, their gunfire effectively put an end to the danger he represented.”

Read the full report here.