Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a Greater Sudbury police officer of criminal wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a 33-year-old man who swung an axe through a cruiser’s windshield and then raised the weapon toward police last year.
The Special Investigations Unit concluded that the officer fired a single shot in self-defence during the Dec. 5, 2025, confrontation near the intersection of Clinton Avenue and Queen Street.
According to the SIU report, the man died in hospital at 6:06 a.m. from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The SIU investigates any incident involving police in which death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person occurs.
The incident
The SIU report indicates that police were called at 5:24 a.m. to a break-and-enter in progress.
A homeowner told a 911 dispatcher that a man had tried to break into his residence, brandished a knife, threatened to kill him and burn his house down and then tried to puncture his vehicle’s tires.
The first officer on scene, stopped his cruiser at the intersection. The man picked up an axe from a construction pylon and walked quickly toward the officer, who drew his pistol and backed away.
The officer, who is the subject of the SIU investigation, arrived as a passenger in another cruiser, exited, drew his pistol and ran toward the man.
“The officer fired a single shot as the complainant lifted the axe and gestured as if he were about to swing or throw the axe in the officer’s direction,” the SIU report reads.
The time was about 5:27 a.m.
The man collapsed, and officers handcuffed him and began first aid. Paramedics transported him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Officer’s account
The shooting officer declined an interview with the SIU investigators, which is his legal right, but authorized the release of his notes.
“He said as much in his notes of the incident when he described feeling his life was in danger as the complainant raised the axe as if to throw it in his direction,” SIU noted in its report.
Video evidence
Footage from a private residence captured the confrontation.
“Starting at about 5:27:10 a.m., the complainant struck the passenger side windshield of the cruiser with the axe. A second police officer … entered from the right. … Starting at about 5:27:13 a.m., the complainant raised the axe above his head and pulled it slightly back before he collapsed to the ground beside the cruiser’s passenger door,” according to SIU investigators’ accounts of the video.
The SIU said in the report that one witness to the shooting also believed the man had raised the axe in a throwing motion just before he was shot.
Director’s decision
SIU Director Joseph Martino found the officer’s actions justified under Section 34 of the Criminal Code, which permits the use of force to defend against a reasonably apprehended attack.
“The axe in the complainant’s possession was clearly capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm and death, and the complainant had already used it to threaten a civilian and (another officer),” Martino wrote.
He added the officer was approximately six to eight metres from the man when he fired.
“It is true that the officer had placed himself in that dangerous position, but he had done so to lend support to (the first officer on the scene), who was also at imminent risk of an axe attack by the complainant,” the SIU director said.
Martino added that retreat was not a viable option given the speed of events, and that a conducted energy weapon may not have been effective because of the coat the man was wearing.
“On this record, I am persuaded that the (subject officer) was within his rights in responding to a lethal threat with a resort to lethal force of his own,” Martino wrote.
“There is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case. The file is closed.”
