News Release
SIU Concludes Investigation into Discharge of Firearms by Two OPP Officers on Highway 11/17
Case Number: 22-PFP-071
Other News Releases Related to Case 22-PFP-071
SIU Investigating After OPP Officers Shoot at Man in Exchange of Gunfire on Hwy. 11/17
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe that two Ontario Provincial Police officers committed a criminal offence in connection with the discharge of their firearms at a 34-year-old man in March.
In the afternoon of March 8, 2022, the Thunder Bay Police Service issued a ‘Be on the Look-out’ for a Kia vehicle travelling eastward from Thunder Bay. The vehicle and one of its occupants had been involved in a shooting. Officers in Red Rock spotted the Kia and attempted to stop it on three separate occasions - at the initial stop of the Kia on Highway 11/17 in the area of Davis Road, in the course of the events on Nuttall Drive, and at the blockade on Highway 582 south of Highway 11/17. At different times, two OPP officers fired their C-8 rifles at the vehicle and the man. The man managed to flee on foot into nearby bushes but surrendered a couple of hours later.
Director Martino concluded that there were no reasonable grounds to believe that either subject official comported themselves unlawfully when they fired their weapons in the direction of the man. There was no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case and the file has been closed.
Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision): https://www.siu.on.ca/en/directors_reports.php.
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.
Monica Hudon, siu.media@ontario.ca
SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES