News Release
No Charges in Shooting of Non-Lethal Rounds at Fellow Officer in London Police Training Exercise
Case Number: 21-OFI-192
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe that two London Police Service officers committed a criminal offence in connection with shooting non-lethal rounds at another officer during a training exercise in June.
On June 23, 2021, the officer suffered an eye injury after being shot by another officer during a mock armed hostage-taking training exercise. Director Martino concluded that the complainant himself was largely responsible for the injury as he had momentarily lifted his eye goggles due to fogging. It was at that moment that he was struck with the non-lethal round.
Director Martino concluded that the training exercise was legitimate and that the organizers had put in place reasonable safety precautions. Accordingly, the file has been closed.
Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision): https://siu.on.ca/en/directors_report_details.php?drid=1610
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
Lisez ce communiqué en français.
Kristy Denette, siu.media@ontario.ca
SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES