Police shoot man on Rideau Street while investigating firearm call

Ottawa police say officers responding to a call about a person with a firearm shot a man outside Rideau Centre on Tuesday, critically injuring them.

Police said they received the call around 1:30 p.m. and located a suspect near 50 Rideau St. between Sussex Drive and Dalhousie Street.

"During the altercation, a member of the Ottawa Police Service discharged their firearm, hitting the individual," police said in a news release issued around 4 p.m.  

Police did not say whether the suspect had a firearm as reported.

The man was taken to hospital in critical condition and was later in stable condition, police said.

No first responders nor other members of the public were injured in the incident, police said. In an earlier post on social media, police said there's no further threat to public safety and no search for more suspects.

The doors to the nearby Rideau Centre mall were locked as a precaution, and Rideau Street was closed between Sussex Drive and Dalhousie Street.

CBC was sent a video from the scene and has spoken to the person who filmed it. The video starts with someone down on the rainy Rideau Street sidewalk as three first responders, two wearing police vests, close in. More first responders pass in and out of frame, scanning the area.

Whenever a police officer fires their weapon at a member of the public it automatically triggers an investigation by the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to determine whether that officer broke the law.

The SIU confirmed later Tuesday in a news release that it seems two officers shot at a 24-year-old man and that it is investigating.