No Justified Charges in Fatal Shooting of Man Who Stabbed Officer, Ontario Police Watch – Toronto Says | The Canadian News

The Ontario police watchdog says charges are not warranted in the fatal shooting of a man who was reportedly in danger and who stabbed an officer in May.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said Toronto police officers were called to a condo in the area of ​​Yonge and Merton streets, south of Davisville Avenue, shortly after 9 p.m. on May 22.

The police received a call from a woman who informed them that her son who had schizophrenia was suffering from mental anguish and had just beaten her. She said that he had no weapons, but that he had access to knives in the unit.

Officers responded and during their encounter with the man, who was armed with a knife, they fired a driven energy weapon at him, to no avail.

The man repeatedly stabbed an officer, causing him serious injuries.

During the encounter, another officer fired a gun at the man’s back, the SIU said. The man was taken to the hospital where he died.

SIU Director Joseph Martino said that because the man was in the middle of a knife attack on an officer, the fatal shot was justified.

Martino noted, however, that officers responding to the incident “gave little thought” to requesting a Mobile Crisis Intervention Team (MCIT) “or believed that such a team was not available or inappropriate under the circumstances.”

“These teams, which combine specially trained police officers with mental health nurses, are part of the police service’s strategy to interact more effectively with people in mental health crisis,” Martino said.

“Under the terms of current police service policy, it appears that an MCIT should have been requested and / or deployed. That said, whether such a team could have contributed to a more positive outcome had they been on the scene is a matter of speculation. “

The full report can be found on the SIU website.

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