Ontario’s police watchdog says there are “no reasonable grounds” to believe a Peel Regional Police officer committed a criminal offence following an exchange of gunfire in Mississauga in February.
On Feb. 28, officers were called to a Mississauga home shortly after midnight after a woman reported her “armed husband was going to kill her and her husband,” according to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
Police located the suspect, a 44-year-old man, in the Fifth Line area near Dundas Street in Mississauga.
During an interaction with the suspect, four officers discharged their firearms, killing the man. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
One officer’s cap was struck by a bullet, Const. Tyler Bell-Morena said at the time, speaking to reporters outside of the scene.
Police said multiple firearms were recovered from the suspect, who was not authorized to possess any weapons.
“He was armed. He was armed pretty well, with multiple firearms. There’s no telling what would have happened,” Bell-Morena said.
Police also said the man had a prior history with police.
In a news release, SIU Director Joseph Martino said officers “exercised restraint and only fired their guns when their lives were in imminent peril.”
Martino also said evidence from the investigation indicated the suspect fired a weapon in the direction of officers.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of municipal, regional and provincial police officers, as well as officers with the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission, and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service, in cases involving death, serious injury, sexual assault, or firearm discharge.
