SIU clears Halton police officer who shot Burlington man in the arm

Ontario's police watchdog says "there are no reasonable grounds to believe" a Halton police officer committed a crime when he shot a Burlington, Ont., man in the arm this past summer.

As CBC Hamilton reported at the time, the shooting occurred on the evening of June 27, when Halton Regional Police Service responded to "a disturbance" at an apartment near Dynes Road and Prospect Street. 

According to an investigation by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), paramedics had responded to a call from a family member of a man in the apartment. While paramedics were attempting to check on the man's wellbeing, the report states, he pointed what appeared to be a gun in their direction. 

Police officers arrived and the man pointed the "apparent firearm" at officers as well. It later turned out to be a pellet gun.

In response, a police officer shot the man, 43, in his left arm. Officers then arrested him, sent him to hospital and notified the SIU about the incident.

The officer "fired his weapon fearing for his life" and his actions "constituted reasonable force," wrote SIU director Joseph Martino, in a decision published Thursday. "Retreat or withdrawal to a position of cover were not viable alternatives."

The SIU investigates incidents involving police officers, special constables of the Niagara Parks Commission or peace officers under the Legislative Assembly Act that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault or a weapon being fired at someone.

Police recording of negotiation 'blank'

The man shot by the officer was interviewed on July 4, the SIU said. Investigators also interviewed the officer who shot the man on July 7, though the officer "declined to submit notes, as is the subject official's legal right," the SIU said.

Three civilian witnesses and seven other police officers involved in the incident were also interviewed over the summer. 

The SIU requested the police's "negotiation recordings" but when reviewed, "they were found to be blank." Police told the SIU that the recording equipment had "malfunctioned." 

The SIU instead reviewed hallway video footage, which showed a back and forth between officers and the man. In the footage, according to the SIU, the parties called out to one another and the man repeatedly came to the door of the unit he lived in.

The report states that throughout the night of the shooting, officers asked the complainant to leave the apartment with his hands in the air and no weapons, but he refused. 

At 9:34 p.m., the man "pointed what looked like a gun down the hallway as he was told to come out with no weapons," the SIU said. He was then shot.

Pellet gun looked like firearm: SIU

In his report, Martino wrote that the man's pellet gun "gave the appearance of being a firearm of the lethal kind."

The man "had over a protracted period claimed to have a gun and indicated he would shoot the officers if they entered his residence," Martino said. The officer "had every reason to believe that his life was in imminent danger and that defensive action was immediately required to protect himself." 

Martino concluded that it was "difficult to see what other defensive course" the officer might have taken and said the file was now closed. 

According to Halton police's 2022 use of force report, the number of incidents that "required use of force" in 2022 was 206, which was up from 198 in 2021. Of those 206, 14 incidents, or seven per cent, involved people having a firearm in their possession. 

There were 171 incidents in 2022 where police pointed their own firearm — up from 140 incidents in 2021.