OTTAWA -- Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says there was no criminal wrongdoing when a Kingston police officer fatally shot a 22-year-old man who had stabbed two people in 2019.
Officers were called to Queen Street and Bagot Street in Kingston at around 2:10 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2019, on reports of a stabbing. They found a man, armed with a knife. Two people had been stabbed.
During the confrontation, one of the officers fired their gun, while the other used a Taser. The suspect died at the scene.
One of the stabbing victims also died at the scene, the other was taken to the hospital and survived.
The SIU is called in after any interaction between police and the general public results in death, serious injury, or an allegation of sexual assault.
The investigation involved interviewing nearly two dozen civilian witnesses and five police officers, and reviewed two cellphone videos of the confrontation between police and the suspect. In the videos, the suspect is seen brandishing a large knife. At one point, the suspect raises the knife and charges one of the officers. The officer fires and hits the suspect.
The SIU says, given the evidence, the officer's use of deadly force was justified.
"For whatever reason, the Complainant was on a violent rampage. Knife in hand, with a 20-centimetre blade, he had viciously attacked an innocent civilian – now deceased – and was in the middle of stabbing another when the [suspect officer] arrived on scene at the intersection of Queen and Bagot Streets. The Complainant was obviously subject to lawful arrest," said SIU Director Joseph Martino is his decision.
"It is clear that the Complainant was on the cusp of launching a knife attack on the SO when the officer fired his weapon. It is also clear that the SO had no other option if he was going to preserve himself from a potentially lethal attack."
You can read the full decision here.
