Undercover officers acquitted in fatal shooting of armed suspect in Markham, Ontario.

Two undercover police officers have been cleared of wrongdoing after firing 45 rounds from their weapons when they confronted two armed suspects in Markham, Ontario, killing one and seriously wounding another.

The incident took place on the morning of November 25, 2022 on Eyer Drive near Woodbine and 16th Avenue.

According to the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which investigates all incidents of death, injury or sexual assault involving police, the two officers had been following the suspects in connection with a series of home invasions that involved place in the area between September and September. November.

The suspects realized they were being followed and detained, the SIU said.

One of the occupants got out of the vehicle and approached the van the officers were driving yelling and demanding to know who they were.

The officer driving the truck rolled down his window to respond, and the suspect broke the glass.

Another suspect approached the driver’s side of the truck with a loaded shotgun, the SIU said, pointing the gun at the officer’s head.

“The officer yelled ‘weapon,’ ordered (the suspect) to drop the weapon, and then began firing his handgun multiple times through the driver’s window,” another civilian agency said.

The second officer sitting in the front passenger seat did the same.

Bullet defects in the Ford F150 pickup. (Photo from SIU report)

Both suspects fled to their vehicle. One of them, the SIU said, was shot in the head and died.

The other made it to the front passenger seat after being shot multiple times in the body.

The SIU said both officers had emptied their magazines. One of the two officers reloaded his gun and continued firing, believing the second suspect was reaching for another gun in the back seat.

That suspect was taken into custody and transported to the hospital for treatment.

A third civilian witness was also detained at the scene. They were uninjured during the exchange of fire.

SIU Director Joseph Martino found in his analysis published on Saturday there were no “reasonable grounds” that either officer committed a criminal offense for the death of one suspect and the injury of another.

“I am satisfied that (the officers) acted to defend themselves, each other, and, in the later stages of the exchange, other officers, from an assault reasonably apprehended at the time of the shooting,” he wrote.

“The circumstances prevailing at the time lend credence to the evidence of the officers in this regard, each of whom said in their interviews with SIU that they fired their weapons out of fear that their lives were at stake. Confronted with a shotgun, the officers had every reason to believe they were in imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death. That fear, in my opinion, was sustained throughout the barrage of gunfire.”

Martino was less confident that the number of shots fired by the officer was reasonable, saying he couldn’t make a conclusion.

“In the cold light of hindsight, it could be said that the risk of death had decreased, but it would be difficult to suggest that the risk had disappeared even from this point of view.”

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