Three people have been charged in connection with a Toronto police firearm investigation that resulted in a 19-year-old man being fatally shot by an officer in Mississauga on Thursday. Toronto police said they were initially notified about a person with a gun in the area of The Esplanade and Lower Jarvis Street on Wednesday afternoon. Officers later identified a suspect and a suspect vehicle, which police said were shortly tracked in Mississauga. Shortly before 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, police said plainclothes officers tried to stop the vehicle in the area of The Collegeway and Winston Churchill Boulevard. While attempting to flee in their vehicle, the suspect struck an officer, police said. According to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ontario’s police watchdog, during the interaction, one officer fired their gun into the suspect vehicle, striking the 19-year-old driver. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity has not been released. The SIU said the other three occupants in the vehicle were arrested. Meanwhile, one officer was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, the SIU said. In a news release on Friday, police identified two suspects as 23-year-old Naquon Laidley of Toronto and 19-year-old Kahiem Bailey-Whitfield of Mississauga. A third suspect cannot be named, as she is 17 years old. They are facing a combined 42 firearm-related charges. The SIU invokes its mandate when the actions of police result in death, serious injury, sexual assault, and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
