The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has found no reasonable grounds to believe two Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers committed an offence in connection with the shooting death of a woman in Burk’s Falls last summer.
The SIU says on August 5, 2021, officers from the OPP Almaguin Highlands Detachment responded to a disturbance call at a cottage in Burk’s Falls.
The police watchdog says the officers came across the woman who swung a knife through the open driver’s door window of their cruiser.
The SIU says she advanced toward an officer with the knife and ignored repeated commands for her to drop the weapon.
“One officer fired his gun four times at the woman while at the same time the other officer shot his gun three times,” states a release. “The woman was struck four times and fell to the ground. The officers provided CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive. The woman was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
The SIU says Joseph Martino, SIU Director, was satisfied that the officers acted reasonably when they sought to protect themselves from a potentially lethal attack with a resort to lethal force of their own, leaving no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.
