An OPP officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing in a fatal shooting in Stone Mills Township last November.
Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has determined there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the man’s death.
On November 12, 2019 a man was involved in a single vehicle accident with the vehicle ending up in the ditch on the east side of County Road 14, just north of Fifth Lake Road, in Stone Mills.
An officer was dispatched to assist and learned the man had a history of violence and was not to be in possession of any weapons.
The driver of the crashed car then grabbed a bat and began to approach the officer who was alone at the time.
The officer fired two shots which did not stop the man from approaching, leading to the officer firing another volley of shots.
The man then fell to the ground and the officer approached the man, kicked the bat away, called for additional help and began CPR.
The man was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.
Martino states he believes the officer involved genuinely and reasonably believed that shooting the complainant was necessary to protect himself from loss of life or grievous bodily harm.
The full report can be found here.
