MUNICIPALITY OF MACHIN, Ontario — The head of the Special Investigations Unit has found that no criminal charges are warranted against OPP officers who were present at an incident that culminated in the death of a man near Dryden in September 2020.
The individual, who was from another province, succumbed in Thunder Bay hospital to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police believed he was in mental distress and was a potential threat to himself, and possibly to others,
According to the analysis of SIU Director Joseph Martino, OPP responded to various sightings of the man and conducted a professional search and rescue operation.
"When they found and confronted [him] they approached the situation with tact," his report states.
Martino said that, after learning he had a rifle, "it would appear that the police acted reasonably in positioning officers around [him] with the intention of containing his movements and, eventually, effecting his apprehension under the Mental Health Act.."
The SIU director described how officers "desperately implored" the man not to harm himself.
As for the possibility of subduing him with a non-lethal anti-riot weapon that shoots rubber bullets or bean bags, Martino determined that, given their distance from the man at the time, "necessitated by [his] possession of a firearm, there was never a realistic opportunity to deploy the weapon."
He found that there was no want of care by two OPP members identified as the subject officers of the investigation.
