December 13, 2022 10:02pm
The province’s police watchdog has cleared a Windsor police officer in connection to a fatal shooting downtown this past summer.
According to the Special Investigations Unit, the incident happened at around 2:20 pm on August 15 near the intersection Wyandotte Street and Ouellette Avenue. Windsor police were called about person who was said to be carrying with a weapon.
A pair of officers on bicycles were first to arrive on scene. The suspect, who reported was wielding a machete and swinging it in the direction of vehicles, was ordered to drop the weapon by the officers, however police say he did not comply.
“The man hit a vehicle with the machete and advanced at officers. One officer discharged a Conducted Energy Weapon at the man. He continued to approach officers, and raised the machete above his head. Another officer shot the man once, striking him in the stomach. The man was handcuffed and transported to hospital, where he died,” a release from the SIU read.
Following an investigation, SIU Director Joseph Martino has concluded that the officer acted reasonably to protect the public and himself.
“The incident occurred at a busy intersection with plenty of third-parties who would have been placed at continuing risk from the Complainant had the officers not intervened,” Martino wrote in his analysis. “On this record, I am unable to reasonably conclude that the [subject officer] acted with excess when he chose to meet an imminent lethal threat with a resort to lethal force of his own.”
The case has since been closed as Martino said the SIU will not be moving forward with criminal proceedings against the officer.
A full review of the incident is available on the SIU’s website.
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