SIU clears officer who shot Richard Kachkar
Posted April 6, 2011 5:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit has ruled that the police officer who shot Richard Kachkar after he allegedly killed Sgt. Ryan Russell used justifiable force and won’t face charges.
Kachkar, 44, is accused of killing Russell during an early-morning rampage in a stolen snowplow on January 12, 2011.
Russell was attempting to stop Kachkar, when the suspect allegedly ran into him near Avenue and Davenport roads. Russell later died of his injuries.
From there, the chase continued with more cruisers and emergency task force agents pursuing the stolen vehicle.
The plow came to a stop on Keele Street, south of Annette, after it collided with a garbage truck and police vehicles moved in to pin it.
After refusing to comply with police orders to exit the vehicle, Kachkar was tasered by four different officers, the SIU report reveals. Kachkar was temporarily immobilized, and officers moved towards him in an attempt to extract him from the vehicle, the report adds.
According to the SIU, that’s when Kachkar accelerated the vehicle, pinning an officer’s leg between the plow and garbage truck.
“I’m stuck, I’m stuck, the vehicle’s crushing me,” he wailed before another officer fired twice at Kachkar, hitting him in the shoulder and arm, the SIU revealed.
Kachkar was then removed and placed under arrest.
“In my view, the subject officer was justified in the use of potentially lethal force when he discharged his firearm twice at Mr. Kachkar,” said SIU director Ian Scott.
“Under the provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada, which authorizes the use of as much force as is reasonably necessary to prevent the commission of an offence that would be likely to cause immediate and serious injury to another person; the subject officer was justified in shooting at Mr. Kachkar and causing his injuries.”
Kachkar was released from hospital on January 17 before making his first court appearance for first-degree murder.
Russell became the first Toronto police officer to die in the line of duty since Constable Laura Ellis, in 2002.
He left behind his wife Christine and their two-year-old son Nolan.
