SIU Concludes Investigation into Toronto Police-Involved Shooting<\/a><\/p>\nToronto police got a call about a man armed with a knife and attacking people inside a home. The man is identified in the SIU report as the Complainant.<\/p>\n
Shortly after arriving at the front of the home, officers saw the interior door open and a male was pushed by the Complainant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe male was escorted a distance from the home as officers attempted to kick open the door. As this was occurring, the dispatcher reported an ongoing commotion inside the residence, including utterances to the effect of, \u2018I stabbed him,\u2019 and \u2018I killed him.\u2019 Blood was said to be everywhere inside the residence,\u201d the SIU report stated.<\/p>\n
A person inside the home also called 911 and urged police to break the door open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Complainant was of unsound mind at the time. He had taken possession of a knife and inflicted serious lacerations to (two people). He pushed back against the front door as officers attempted to force it open,\u201d the SIU said.<\/p>\n
The SO remained alone in the front door as his fellow officers explored other access points.<\/p>\n
Seconds later, the Complainant opened the interior door and moved quickly towards the officer while holding a red-handled knife in his right hand, the SIU said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe officer immediately stepped back off the front door stoop, drew his firearm and fired two shots in quick succession. The Complainant was just past the door\u2019s threshold at the time, approximately a metre from the officer,\u201d the SIU said.<\/p>\n
The Complainant was struck in the left chest and right abdomen and fell to the ground.<\/p>\n
Officers quickly handcuffed him behind his back, and seals were applied to his wound. He was later taken to the hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n
Police said two stabbing victims were also transported to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am satisfied that the SO fired his gun to protect himself from a reasonably apprehended attack on the part of the Complainant,\u201d SIU Director Martino said. He noted that body-worn camera footage supports this account.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe footage indicates that the Complainant moved in the SO\u2019s direction with a knife and was no more than about a metre from the officer when the shots were fired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Martino also determined that the officer\u2019s use of gunfire was \u201creasonable defensive force.\u201d He said the officer knew he was responding to a call involving a person who had a knife and was attacking people inside the home.<\/p>\n
The SIU director stated that when the Complainant opened the door and confronted the officer at close range with a knife, \u201cthere is little doubt that the Complainant constituted a lethal threat to the SO.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe officer would have had every reason to believe that his life was at imminent risk by a knife attack and that immediate action was necessary to incapacitate the Complainant. The weapon with the greatest chance of doing just that was a firearm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Martino noted that retreating was not an option for the officer, given how fast the situation evolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cLesser force without the stopping power of a gun would have left the officer dangerously exposed had they been ineffective in deterring the Complainant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Toronto police officer shot a stabbing suspect in North York in December to protect himself from an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-620650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}