News Release
SIU Discontinues Investigation into Firearm Discharges by Police at Vehicle in Brampton
Case Number: 19-OFI-228
Other News Releases Related to Case 19-OFI-228
SIU Investigating Discharge of Firearm by Police Officer on Highway 410 in Brampton
The Interim Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has terminated an investigation into a police-involved shooting that occurred last month in Brampton.
In the early morning hours of September 16, 2019, there was a shootout that was reportedly gang-related on Highway 410 in Brampton in the area of Sandalwood Parkway. Peel Regional Police (PRP) officers were dispatched to the scene. As two officers were traveling northbound on the highway in a police truck, they were flagged down by a tow truck driver who had come across a white Honda sedan in the ditch off the east side of the highway, south of Sandalwood Parkway. The sedan had been struck by bullets and contained a male who had sustained bullet wounds. Another male was in the area of the sedan; he too had been shot.
At the scene, the officers observed a black Audi SUV. When they became aware that the driver might be armed with a firearm, the police truck pulled in front of the Audi to block its path. The driver of the SUV reversed his vehicle, striking the tow truck in the process. One of the officers exited through the front passenger side of the police truck and discharged five rounds from his sidearm at the SUV as it continued to reverse and then accelerated forward northbound on the highway.
The SUV was eventually located abandoned in the area of Geddes Lane and Checkerberry Crescent. The vehicle had been struck four times by bullets.
Interim Director Martino said, “The police shooting was reported to the SIU by police, and the SIU invoked its jurisdiction based on information that the driver of the SUV, and any possible passengers, might have been struck by police gunfire. However, after forensic examination of the SUV, it appears that no one inside the vehicle, whomever he, she or they may have been, was struck by any of the bullets; there was no indication of any bullet penetration into the interior of the vehicle, nor did the SUV’s interior contain any blood. Accordingly, as the evidence suggests that no one was seriously injured or killed by the police firearm discharges, the SIU is without statutory jurisdiction to proceed with its investigation. Accordingly, the investigation is hereby discontinued, and the file closed.”
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