Provincial police cleared in incident where a suspect killed, bystander injured by police gunfire in northern Ont.

Police cleared of wrongdoing in Latchford shooting Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared OPP officers of any wrongdoing in a fatal shooting near Temiskaming Shores earlier this year.

Provincial police in northern Ontario have been cleared in an incident where a 26-year-old man passed away and an 80-year-old man was seriously injured as a result of gunfire discharged by officers in the New Liskeard area.

What happened

The incident began on the afternoon of March 7, when Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) pulled over a vehicle in Kirkland Lake for traffic infractions.

“(The driver) was operating a white Nissan SUV in Kirkland Lake when he was pulled over for a traffic infraction,” the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said in a news release.

“In the front passenger seat of the Nissan was (the driver’s) family member. The officers ran a check of (the driver) and learned that he was subject to pending charges for weapons and drug offences.”

Police said they had observed the vehicle parked by a known drug house and vehicle’s occupants provided an explanation for their presence in Kirkland Lake that did not make sense.

“(Officers) decided to arrest the pair for drug possession. Advised that they were under arrest, (the driver) put the Nissan in motion and drove away,” reads the report.

“The officers pursued for a period but were soon directed to discontinue.”

The driver travelled west on Highway 66 and eventually began travelling southbound on Highway 11.

“Police officers intercepted the Nissan on several occasions and pursued it,” said SIU officials.

“Operating a pick-up truck cruiser, travelled north on Highway 11 and deployed a spike belt in the southbound lane just ahead of the Nissan in the area of Maille Drive. (The driver) veered left around the passenger side of the officer’s cruiser, stopped oriented northbound, to circumvent the spike belt, continuing south on Highway 11.”

The officer then returned to his truck and travelled south in pursuit passing another southbound OPP SUV. Radio broadcasts indicated that the Nissan had made contact with another OPP vehicle.

Officers learned that the Nissan had traveled to Portage Bay Road in New Liskeard, Ont.

“The officer (driving the truck) turned onto the roadway to see if he could find the Nissan. He observed the Nissan moving towards his truck from a side road,” said SIU officials.

“(He) positioned his truck in the Nissan’s path of travel and watched as it maneuvered past his driver’s side, the driver’s front of the SUV colliding with the driver’s rear of the pick-up in the process.”

The pursuing officer then lost sight of the suspect vehicle.

“He drove past two other spike belt deployments by OPP officers before coming up on the Nissan again,” reads the report.

“Its tires appeared to have been damaged by the spike belts.”

Shortly after at about 6 p.m., the driver pointed a semi-automatic pistol out his window and fired at the OPP truck.

The pursuing officer radioed in that shots had been fired.

“(He) slowed and momentarily stopped to create distance between the vehicles,” reads the report.

“He subsequently broadcast that the driver of the Nissan had angled his vehicle to let off another shot at him. As the officer continued, the Nissan no longer in view, additional gunfire was heard.”

SIU said there is evidence that one or more of the initial shots came from the driver while the remainder of the gunfire came from C8 rifles from OPP officers positioned in and around a nearby intersection.

During the gunshots the Nissan has turned into a residential driveway and stopped.

According to the report, at this time the passenger had fled the Nissan – he would later be found and arrested without incident early the following morning.

The driver was located by OPP officers deceased in the Nissan holding a semi-automatic pistol in his right hand.

“Multiple shots fired from the subject officials struck the nearby residence, one of which appears to have been responsible for graze wounds suffered by (an 80-year-old man,) inside the house at the time, to the right side of the head,” reads the report.

Driver’s cause of death

During the autopsy the pathologist preliminary view is that the driver’s death as caused by a gunshot wound to the head.

“(The driver) had sustained a bullet impact in the left upper forehead that exited above the right ear,” reads the report.

“Another bullet went through his left leg below the knee, re-entered the right inner thigh, and lodged in his right femur. A further bullet struck (him) in the left hand.

No wrongdoing

Ontario's police watchdog has determined there are no reasonable grounds to believe that any OPP officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the shooting incident.

Interviews with the complainants, physical evidence collected and video footage from the scene led the SIU to clear the officer of wrongdoing.

“None of the officers provided that evidence firsthand to the SIU,” reads the director’s decision.

“Each having chosen not to avail themselves of an interview (as was their legal right.)”

SIU director Joseph Martino wrote he was satisfied that the gunfire discharged by the five officers – 17 rounds fired from the C8 rifles – was intended to deter a reasonably apprehended threat.

"There is evidence that (the driver) had fired one or more shots in the direction of (the pursuing officer) and that he then took aim and fired at the police roadblock in the intersection before the subject officials returned fire,” he said.

“On this record, it is evident that the subject officials were under attack and that they fired their weapons to protect against the loss of life and limb.”

Martino said the police gunfire constituted reasonable force as the officers involved were under fire and needed to act quickly to incapacitate the driver and “nothing short of return gunfire” could meet that objective. He also cited that withdrawal or retreat were not viable options for police given the presence of residences in the area and the risk to public safety were the suspects allowed to escape.

According to the director, the 80-year-old area resident was injured by what appears to have been a police bullet during the exchange of gunfire, while unfortunate, given the speed with which events unfolded and the need to immediately neutralize the driver, the use of gunfire was justified.

“I am unable to reasonably conclude that the risk created by the officers’ gunfire to third-parties outweighed the countervailing risk to public safety, including officer safety, had the subject officials not fired,” Martino wrote.

“The officers had a difficult decision to make and only split seconds in which to make it. In the circumstances, their choice remained a reasonable one.”

“For the foregoing reasons, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges. The file is closed," he wrote to end his report.

Read the full report here.

In the aftermath of the shooting in the rural northern Ontario area, local politicians stressed the need for better police communication with municipalities during emergencies.