The province’s police watchdog says the Niagara officer who shot and injured a 59-year-old man during an exchange of gunfire in Welland in December did so to protect himself and his colleagues.
As a result, Joseph Martino, the director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), cleared the officer of any criminal wrongdoing in the Dec. 19 shootout.
Martino released his final report into the incident, detailing what transpired that Friday morning in the area of Plymouth Road and Second Street.
READ IN FULL: SIU Concludes Investigation into Man Wounded in Exchange of Gunfire with Police in Welland
The SIU said three officers were originally dispatched to stand by with municipal workers who were tearing down a fence in front of a building that was illegally erected by the 59-year-old, who is identified in the report as the Complainant.
After much of the work had been conducted, the Complainant emerged at the east side of the building with a fully loaded revolver in his jacket’s right pocket.
One officer saw the Complainant walk towards the city workers, so she got out of her cruiser to intervene.
“She was no further than about three to five metres from the Complainant when he drew his firearm and fired multiple rounds at the officer,” the SIU said, noting that one round struck the officer, who then ran to take cover behind her cruiser.
“The Complainant continued to fire and retreated towards the double-doors of his residence,” the SIU said.
All three officers fired their guns at the same time, and the SIU said one of the rounds struck the Complainant before he got back inside.
“Shortly thereafter, the Complainant appeared again on one or two occasions, this time from the front entrance on the south side of the residence. Now armed with a long gun, the Complainant fired shots at a piece of heavy equipment that had been used to remove the fence – a front-end loader. The operator ran from the vehicle to seek cover. Shots were also fired in the direction of police,” the SIU said.
One officer retrieved a C8 rifle from her cruiser and used it to fire a single shot at the Complainant, prompting him to retreat inside the building.
A lengthy standoff ensued, which ended the next day with the arrest of the Complainant, who police later identified as 59-year-old Daniel Tronko.
He and the officer he shot were later taken to the hospital.
The SIU said the officer “would likely have been grievously injured or killed but for the protection of her ballistic vest.”
In his report, Martino said the two to four rounds shot by the officer who struck Tronko “constituted reasonable defensive force.”
“Their lives were clearly at risk,” the SIU director said.
“Lesser force was not an option at the time given the distance that separated the parties. Nor was less-lethal force as capable as lethal force of meeting the exigencies of the moment, that is, the Complainant’s immediate incapacitation.”
Martino concluded that while the Complainant was shot and wounded by the officer, “there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the injury was attributable to unlawful conduct on the part of the officer.”
