Following an investigation, the Special Investigations Unit of Ontario has deemed that no crime was committed by two Northumberland OPP officers in the shooting death of a 43-year-old Northumberland man in April.
On April 6 police were called to County Road 25 and Tobacco Road for reports of a man who was behaving aggressively on the roadway and had allegedly threatened and assaulted a driver.
When police arrived on the scene the man allegedly threatened an officer and approached the officers with a baseball bat, hitting one of the officers with it.
He then got into a pickup truck and drove at the police cruisers.
A press release from the SIU said that the man got out of the truck and, while ignoring the officers’ commands to drop the bat, advanced on them again before being shot four times by one officer while the other shot at him once.
Officers administered first aid and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
The SIU concluded that there was insufficient evidence to reasonably prove that either officer acted without legal justification and the case has been closed.
