Quebec police watchdog clears officer in fatal Pontiac shooting in 2023

The BEI logo, Quebec’s independent police bureau, is seen in Louiseville, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Quebec's police watchdog has cleared a provincial police officer who shot and killed a man in the Pontiac region last year.

Quebec's Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), the province's equivalent to Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, said Tuesday it was closing its file into events that took place in Clarendon, Que., about 85 kilometres northwest of downtown Ottawa, on June 5, 2023.

According to the investigation, officers with the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) responded to a 9-1-1 call about a man living on the caller's property who had become aggressive and violent with her and her partner. Two SQ officers arrived on the scene at 11:17 a.m. They asked the couple if the man had any weapons and were told he didn't, and that the man was inside a shed on the property. An officer approached and identified himself and asked the man to come out, while a second officer stood with the couple nearby. The man then opened the door and aimed a long gun at the approaching officer. The officer then shot the man, firing several times, causing the man to fall backwards. The shed's door closed behind him. 

After several unsuccessful attempts to contact the man, a drone was deployed inside the shed at 11:43 a.m. The officers discovered the man shot, lying on his back on the ground. Resuscitation was unsuccessful and the man was pronounced dead.

The Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales, the authority that authorizes and directs criminal and penal prosecutions in Quebec, found that the officer's use of force was justified.

"Considering the firearm in the man's possession, the physical proximity of officers and civilians to the armed man, and the aggressive and violent state in which he was, the police officers had reasonable grounds to believe that the force applied to the man was necessary for their protection and the protection of the public against serious bodily harm or death," a report, translated from French, says.

The report did not identify the deceased.

The BEI investigates in all cases where a person, other than a police officer on duty, dies, suffers a serious injury or is injured by a firearm used by a police officer during a police operation or while being detained by a police force.