SIU clears Ottawa police officers who shot man during gunfire exchange in Nepean

An Ottawa police cruiser and tape at the scene of a shooting on Garden Glen Private in the Meadowlands area. Ontario's Special Investigation Unit claims police and a 28-year-old man exchanged gunfire and the man was hit, suffering serious injuries. March 5, 2023. (Brad Quinn/CTV News Ottawa)

Ontario's police watchdog says there are no grounds to lay criminal charges against three Ottawa police officers who shot a man while returning gunfire during a mental distress call earlier this year.

Police officers were first called to a home on Garden Glen Private, in the Meadowlands area, at around 9:40 p.m. March 4, when someone expressed concern about another individual who had a gun.

The Special Investigations Unit report states the caller, the man's coworker, called police to say he was manic and owned several guns.

About an hour after police arrived on the scene, the man opened the door and fired a handgun, at which point police returned fire, hitting the 28-year-old in the right forearm and right leg, the SIU report said. He closed the door, but his mother called police to say he had been injured. He later surrendered and was arrested.

He was treated for serious injuries. His identity has not been released.

The SIU is called in to investigate the actions of police officers that result in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the use of a firearm.

Three civilian witnesses and six witness officials were interviewed as part of the investigation. The man who was shot and the three officers under investigation declined to be interviewed by the SIU.

"Though none of the subject officials spoke with the SIU, I am satisfied that they each acted to protect themselves and others from a reasonably apprehended assault when they fired their weapons," SIU director Joseph Martino said in his decision. "Their notes and reports certainly suggest as much, as do the circumstances that prevailed at the time. Put simply, faced with a handgun being pointed in their direction at close range, it is difficult to imagine that the TU officers could have felt otherwise."

This week, the city's city's community services committee approved a strategy for the first phase of a program that would see an alternative response to 9-1-1. The Ottawa Guiding Council for Mental Health and Addictions developed the program. Once fully approved and in place, the plan would see a non 9-1-1 phone number created to triage calls and dispatch response. A 24/7 mobile team would respond and be led by civilian professionals with expertise in mental health and substance use crises. The city says non-uniform responders would offer trauma informed and culturally appropriate crisis response services.