News Release
SIU Terminates Investigation into Firearm Discharge by Police Officer in Mississauga; Man was Not Injured
Case Number: 19-OFI-192
Other News Releases Related to Case 19-OFI-192
SIU Investigating Discharge of Firearm by Police Officer in Mississauga
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has terminated an investigation into the August 2019 police-involved shooting in Mississauga.
On August 13, 2019, a Peel Regional Police (PRP) officer was dispatched to an address on Apple Circle Crescent following reports that a 29-year-old man had shot a woman. The officer located the man and chased him through neighbouring streets and a nearby park, eventually cornering him on the lawn outside a home on Sandford Farm Drive. However, the officer was unable to control the man. The man ran to the officer’s cruiser, which was still running, and entered it. The officer discharged his conducted energy weapon at the man but the probes missed their mark. As the man was accelerating away in the cruiser, the officer fired his handgun five times in the cruiser’s direction. The cruiser was subsequently located, abandoned, on Idlewilde Crescent. As blood was found within the cruiser, the SIU launched an investigation on the basis that the man had been seriously injured in the incident.
On November 14, 2019, the man was arrested by PRP officers.
Director Martino said, “Based on the evidence, it is clear that the man was not struck by any of the bullets fired by the officer. The blood in the cruiser was the result of a cut to the man’s arm inflicted in the domestic incident that had prompted the call to police that same day. Accordingly, as the SIU’s jurisdiction is not engaged, the investigation is hereby discontinued, and the file is 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