WINDSOR -- The Province’s police watchdog has cleared two Windsor Police officers of any wrong-doing following a police-involved shooting in the Countryside Trailer Park.
The case dates back to Sept. 16, 2018 when police officers with WPS responded to a disturbance call at Bonita Street in Windsor. When they arrived, officers were confronted by the complainant who was sitting in a chair out front of his home.
According to the SIU, the 49-year-old complainant was holding a baseball bat. They say when police officers ordered the man to drop the bat the complainant armed himself with a Mossberg, Model 183 D-D, .410 gauge single-shot shotgun, pointing it at one of the officers.
The SIU said the officer feared for his safety and the officers, armed with a C8 rifle and a 40 caliber handgun, opened fire on the complainant to “diminish the threat.”
The complainant took two shots from police in the upper left chest. “The Complainant fell to the ground and was approached by both officers, who immediately began to apply pressure to his wounds while they waited for paramedics,” the SIU report states.
He was transported to Windsor Regional Hospital and later, the Detroit Receiving Hospital stateside for treatment, according to the SIU.
The Special Investigations unit interviews the complainant and six other witnesses – as well as three witness officers. The officers who were subject of the investigation declined to be interviewed, which the SIU says it within their legal rights.
In the director’s decision, he indicated the officers’ actions were justified in section 34 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
“The subject officer and witness officer were clearly engaged in the exercise of their duties when they arrived at the Complainant’s residence and took up positions on the front lawn,” writes Joseph Martino, the interim director of the SIU. “The complainant was directed to drop the bat. Regrettably, possibly owing to his intoxication at the time, the complainant did not react favourably to the command. Instead, he reached for his long gun and pointed it in the direction of the officers, most specifically at witness officer one.”
In his report, the director indicates the complainant’s firearm was actually inoperable, a detail the officers couldn’t have known when they opened fire. He also noted the officers believed their lives were in immediate danger.
“I am satisfied there are no reasonable grounds to believe that either the subject officer or witness officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the shooting,” writes interim director Martino.
Martino has closed the case.
