Ottawa police officer cleared by SIU after shooting man wielding hatchet

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains a graphic image and descriptions.

The province’s police watchdog cleared an Ottawa police officer of any wrongdoing in an Orléans incident where a 33-year-old man was shot and tasered.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) invoked its mandate after Ottawa Police Service reported a police-involved shooting on Nov. 15 in an area of St. Joseph Boulevard and Place D’Orléans Drive.

At 11:12 p.m. that Friday night, multiple 911 callers reported that a man had attempted to break into several vehicles and attacked people. A caller said the man was armed with a hatchet and had shattered two windows at a nearby restaurant.

“A woman called 911 to report that she and her husband were attacked while in a restaurant’s drive-thru,” the SIU report reads. “A male had struck her husband’s hand and inflicted severe injuries on his face and head, resulting in significant blood loss.”

Three officers arrived at the scene within minutes, with one of the officers heading into the restaurant to speak with the employee before leaving and taking out his gun, pointing it south, evidence the SIU consulted shows.

The accused, still holding the hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other, started running toward the officer. The SIU report notes that the officer “repeatedly” told the man to drop his weapons but he continued forward.

The officer shot the man when he was within five metres, but even this did not fully slow the accused who while on the ground crawling held the hatchet.

The two more officers arrived and told the man to drop his weapon again. When the suspect refused, the officers deployed their tasers, allowing them to kick the hatchet away and handcuff the man.

He was transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds. Four other people also suffered injuries from the incident.

SIU Director Joseph Martino found “no reasonable grounds” to believe an officer committed a criminal offence in this altercation.