In the late afternoon of April 13, 2025, OPP officers were dispatched to a property in Minden Hills after a woman reported that her husband was suicidal and in possession of a firearm. When police arrived on scene, the man had travelled about 80 metres or so east of the house and was among some trees. Officers took up positions of cover beside a shed east of the residence. An officer directed the man to drop his weapon, to which the man responded with profanity. He refused to drop the rifle and told the officers to shoot him. An officer continued to negotiate with the man. When the man raised his rifle in the officers’ direction, an officer fired his C8 rifle twice, striking the man’s left buttock and upper left leg. Moments later, the 60-year-old man shot himself. The officers made their way to the man’s body and observed that he was deceased. He had suffered a catastrophic injury to the head. On his assessment of the evidence, SIU Director Joseph Martino determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe that an officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the man’s death.
Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision): https://www.siu.on.ca/en/directors_reports.php.
