No charges for Ottawa officer who shot man in Orléans

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Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has cleared an Ottawa police officer of criminal charges in connection with the shooting of an axe-wielding assailant outside an Orléans restaurant last November.

Police were called to the scene after 11 p.m. on Nov. 15 following a series of 911 calls reporting that a 33-year-old man had attacked several people and was smashing car and restaurant windows in and around a Wendy’s drive-thru near the intersection of Place d’Orléans and St. Joseph Blvd.

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A police officer confronted the man in the drive-thru, the SIU report said. After ignoring several commands to drop the axe, the man charged at the officer. In turn, the officer fired eight shots at the man, hitting him in the leg.

When the man continued to crawl towards the officer, still holding the axe, another officer discharged a conducted energy weapon, commonly known as a Taser.

Police then contained the man, who was subsequently taken to The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus for treatment of his leg wounds.

In reviewing the incident and interviewing both civilian and police witnesses, SIU director Joseph Martino concluded that the officer who fired his weapon had not committed a criminal offence.

“The (officer) says that he fired his gun believing it was necessary to protect himself from grievous injury or death at the hands of the complainant,” Martino wrote in his report. “The circumstances that prevailed at the time lend credence to the officer’s apprehensions.”

Martino wrote that the gunfire represented reasonable force for the situation.

“The circumstances cried out for the immediate stopping power that only a firearm could provide. On this record, I am satisfied that the first sequence of shots was reasonably necessary in self-defence. For the same reasons, the second volley of gunfire was made necessary when the complainant continued to advance on the officer.

“For the foregoing reasons, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.”

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