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Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a Chatham-Kent police officer of any criminal wrongdoing in a shooting that left a Tilbury man with serious injuries last year.
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Chatham-Kent Police responded to a call from a home on Laurentia Drive in Tilbury about 8 pm on Sept. 5, 2020, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said Jan. 5. The residents – a man, who was intoxicated, and a woman – told officers the call was made by mistake and police left, the SIU said.
A few hours later, just before 11 pm police responded to a report of a man armed with guns at the intersection of Laurentia Drive and Rose Avenue, the watchdog said.
Police saw a man with a crowbar leaving his garage, the SIU said. After refusing multiple requests to drop his weapon, the officers used a taser on the man, who then pulled out an object from his jacket and pointed it at officers, the watchdog said.
An officer fired his gun four times at the man, who was struck by two bullets. He suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital, investigators said.
Police officers gave first aid to the man before paramedics arrived at the scene.
SIU director Joseph Martino said the officer who fired the gun at the 63-year-old Tilbury man acted reasonably.
“Retreat or withdrawal were not realistic options in the circumstances,” he wrote in his decision, noting the officers attempted to tell the man to drop his weapon.
The object the man was holding turned out to be a cordless screwdriver, the SIU said.
“Though he was mistaken about the nature of the item in the complainant’s hands, the (officer’s) mistake, I am satisfied (his action) was a reasonable one to have made given the fraught nature of the moment,” Martino said.
He added the man had deceived the officers with his earlier 911 call and gestures at the scene, and the officer had little time to make a decision about the threat.