MOONBEAM - Ontario's police watchdog has cleared an officer who fired a gun during a Moonbeam incident that closed Highway 11 for 12 hours in September 2024.
Special Investigations Unit (SIU) director Joseph Martino's report has been released on the Sept. 20, 2024, incident. He found no basis for criminal charges.
The SIU is an arms-length agency that investigates police-involved incidents where there has been a death, serious injury, allegations of sexual assault, or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
Around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 20, OPP received a call about a domestic assault. Before police arrived at the residence where the call was made, a 36-year-old man left in a Jeep. He had allegedly cut himself with a knife and threatened self-harm if police arrived, according to the SIU report.
An officer saw the Jeep heading west on Highway 11 at 9:13 p.m. With two cruisers in the area, police tried a "rolling block" of the Jeep in a construction area where the road was down to one lane of traffic.
At the construction area, temporary traffic signals were set up. The lane that traffic flowed through had guardrails on one side and a concrete barrier on the other side. An OPP cruiser was the first vehicle stopped at a red light, followed by the Jeep and another OPP cruiser.
When the light changed, all of the vehicles moved forward and before the construction zone ended, the officer driving the lead cruiser angled his vehicle towards the guard rail and stopped, said the SIU.
The suspect "very quickly" reversed the Jeep and hit the front of the cruiser behind.
"He then accelerated forward and turned left attempting to drive through the opening between the guard rail and the driver’s side of the (subject officer's) cruiser. The (subject officer) had exited his vehicle and was standing by his open door. He fired six shots in rapid succession as the Jeep travelled towards him, struck the rear driver’s side of his cruiser, and came to a stop," reads the report.
None of the shots hit the man and after the gunfire stopped, he fled the scene on foot. He was arrested the next day.
The road was closed for 12 hours for the police investigation.
SEE: SIU called in after incident that closed highway for about 12 hours
Martino's analysis of the incident notes the Criminal Code allows "conduct that would otherwise constitute an offence is legally justified if it was intended to deter a reasonably apprehended assault, actual or threatened, and was itself reasonable."
He said the officer was "within his rights" to try and stop the suspect in connection with the reported domestic disturbance. The director is satisfied the officer fired his gun "believing it was necessary to defend himself from a reasonably apprehended attack."
"That is what he said in his SIU interview, and the circumstances that prevailed at the time lend credence to his assertion," he wrote.
Martino also said the gunfire was reasonable force in self-defence, noting the suspect "was very intentionally accelerating" in the officer's direction and "was within split seconds of striking the officer had the Jeep he was operating not collided with the rear driver’s side of the cruiser."
Read the full report here.
