SIU clears London, Ont., police officer in fatal shooting of armed man in Pond Mills suburb | CBC News

A London, Ont., police officer who was under investigation for the fatal shooting of an armed suspect in a residential area in July has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the province’s police watchdog. 

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) wrapped up its investigation into the shooting that left a 35-year-old man dead on Glenroy Road in the Pond Mills neighbourhood.

SIU director Joseph Martino found no reasonable grounds to believe the officer committed a criminal offence in connection to the man’s death, according to a news release. 

“Director Martino was satisfied that the officer acted to defend himself and others from a reasonably apprehended threat when he fired his rifle at the man in the area of a residence on Glenroy Road,” the release said.

“The man had raised his firearm and earlier used the gun to break into a residence. Prior to that the man committed a series of violent acts, including shooting a man in the face.”

Police were first called to Edmunds Crescent shortly after 8:30 a.m. on July 21 for reports of a man armed with a gun trying to steal a vehicle from someone on the street. They continued getting 911 calls about the same man with a gun, going through the backyards of homes on Glenroy Road, south of Commissioners Road.

The incident sent another man to the hospital after he was shot in the face by the suspect while he was working on a ladder outside a house in the area, Martino wrote in his report.

The SIU investigates when officers are involved in incidents that lead to injury or death. Five officers and two forensic investigators were assigned to this case.

Officer acted in defence, says SIU director

“The Complainant proceeded to another address where he entered the home and then barricaded himself in the garage. At 10:20 a.m., a LPS Emergency Response Unit officer discharged his firearm at the Complainant, striking him,” the report said. 

“The Complainant was taken to London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) Victoria Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.”

The subject official (SO), or the officer who was being investigated, did not provide his notes to SIU investigators or agree to an interview with the watchdog. SO’s have a legal right to decline interviews.

“Given what the officer knew of the Complainant’s propensity for gun violence that morning, I am confident that the SO rightly believed that public safety was at imminent risk from gunfire, and that there was an immediate need to take defensive action, when the Complainant raised his firearm as if preparing to fire it,” Martino said.

Not firing when the officer did would have placed the public at risk for bodily harm of death, he added. 

“On this record, the SO had little choice but to resort to the only weapon at his disposal to incapacitate the complainant as quickly as possible – his firearm.”

The file has been closed and the officer will not face criminal charges.