News Release

News Release

SIU Concludes Ottawa Firearm Injuries Investigation

Case Number: 13-OFI-127   

Mississauga (5 July, 2013) --- The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ian Scott, has concluded that there are no reasonable grounds to charge an Ottawa Police Service officer with any criminal offence in regards to the shooting injuries sustained by 20-year-old Lenny Sanguya last month.

The SIU assigned four investigators and two forensic investigators to probe the circumstances of this incident. As part of the investigation, six witness officers and 25 civilian witnesses were interviewed. The subject officer provided the SIU with a copy of his notes but declined to be interviewed, as is his legal right.

The SIU investigation found that the following events took place on Tuesday, June 4:
• In the late afternoon hours, Mr. Sanguya got into an argument with a family member in his residence located on Tenth Line Road. Mr. Sanguya became angry and caused some property damage in the house, and then left the premises.
• Mr. Sanguya proceeded to walk into the northbound Tenth Line traffic, causing it to stop. He jumped onto the hood of a car driven by a woman who had two children in the back seat, and kicked out the front windshield. This frightened the occupants of the vehicle and caused one of the children to run from the vehicle. He then moved onto to another stationary vehicle and tried to pick a fight with the driver. Mr. Sanguya threw rocks at that vehicle.
• Mr. Sanguya then disappeared into his residence and came back out armed with a butcher knife. The subject officer arrived at the scene and exited his police cruiser. There were pedestrians and motorists who had stopped in the vicinity. The officer drew his police-issued firearm and repeatedly ordered Mr. Sanguya to “get down!”  Instead of complying, Mr. Sanguya taunted the subject officer with the knife. The subject officer took a couple of steps backward. However, Mr. Sanguya began to close the distance between himself and the subject officer, and continued to ignore commands to drop the knife and get down to the ground. When the distance between the two men was reduced to approximately 10 to 15 feet, the subject officer discharged his firearm twice. One projectile entered Mr. Sanguya’s upper right chest and exited his back and the other entered his right bicep area. Mr. Sanguya fell to the ground.
• Paramedics transported him to Ottawa Civic Hospital where he received medical attention. He is expected to survive. 

Director Scott said, “Mr. Sanguya was armed with a knife and acting in a bizarre and aggressive manner. He ignored the subject officer’s commands to disarm himself and go to the ground, and he was closing the distance between himself and the subject officer. In these circumstances, the subject officer had a reasonably held fear of imminent harm or death to himself or others in the immediate vicinity. Accordingly, in my view, the officer was justified in discharging his firearm twice in an attempt to stop this imminent threat.”

The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (police officers as well as special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service) that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must

• consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
• depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid
• publicly report the results of its investigations