Ontario’s police oversight agency has decided not to press charges against an Ottawa officer who shot a man during a 14-hour hostage standoff this past summer.
In a press release issued on Friday, Joseph Martino, the director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), stated he found no reasonable grounds to believe the officer acted unlawfully and concluded that the officer fired his weapon in self-defense after being grabbed by the suspect.
“Any reasonable person in the circumstances would have feared for their life and taken steps to defend themselves,” the release said.
On July 2, police received a report of a woman being held at knifepoint by a man in a home on Finlayson Crescent.
According to Martino’s findings, officers established a perimeter around the house and attempted to communicate with the suspect.
From an upstairs bedroom, the suspect refused to give up and insisted that police would need to kill him, as per the report.
After hours of trying to negotiate, officers forced their way into the house and charged into the bedroom where the woman was being held.
The man then wrapped his arms around one officer’s legs in what can be described as a bear hug, according to Martino. The officer discharged his rifle twice, hitting the suspect once in his right leg. The suspect was later taken to hospital with a fractured tibia.
The shooting led to an automatic investigation by the SIU, which looks into deaths, serious injuries, and sexual assault claims involving police officers, as well as incidents where firearms are discharged by law enforcement.
While it remains unclear if the suspect was armed when he grabbed hold of the officer, a box cutter was discovered on the floor of the bedroom as noted in Martino’s report.
At that time, Ottawa police reported that while she had been held hostage, the woman was physically unharmed and receiving support.
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