Officers cleared in shooting death of man during Vaughan hostage-taking
Posted November 10, 2018 12:24 pm.
Last Updated November 10, 2018 12:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has determined criminal charges will not be laid in the shooting death of a man who held several people hostage in Vaughan last year.
Police were called to a Royal Bank branch near Major Mackenzie Drive West and Dufferin Street on Dec. 13, 2017, after reports a man armed with an apparent bomb had walked in.
The suspect took 13 civilians and bank employees hostage. He also reportedly pointed a handgun at the hostages.
According to the SIU incident report, the assailant forced a customer inside to bank to call 911 and tell York police that unless they “delivered a quantity of best-quality crystal meth to the bank and put the United States President Donald Trump on the telephone with him, he would detonate his body-worn explosives and the explosives in the backpack.”
The 25-year-old man from Vaughan was later shot and killed by two York police officers after negotiations with the suspect failed. He has not been identified.
No one else was injured in the incident, but police officers on the scene told CityNews those inside the bank were “definitely traumatized.”
It was later determined he was armed with an imitation handgun and the supposed explosives were actually made of plumbing materials and harmless wires. Two hunting-style knives were also found on the suspect.
The investigation also revealed the assailant may have been suffering from a suspected psychosis during the incident, and it was characterized as a significant contributing factor to his death.
In his report, SIU Director Tony Loparco concluded the decision to use lethal force to subdue the suspect was justified. The full report can be found here.
