SIU clears Peel police in shooting death of 15-year-old

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has cleared a Peel Regional Police officer in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy last year.

In the early morning hours of July 27, 2017, police were called to a plaza near Creditview and Britannia roads following reports about a gas station robbery involving three males.

When officers arrived on the scene, two of the three suspects had fled in a grey vehicle while the third attempted to car-jack several vehicles in the area.

During an interaction with police outside a bank in the plaza, the teen was shot. He was taken to hospital in serious condition, but did not die until a month after the shooting.

The SIU investigation found that the teen, along with two other males and two young females in a stolen car, attempted to rob a gas station and a restaurant between the hours of midnight and 1:30 a.m. In each instance, witnesses said the teen produced a black handgun and, while the teen demanded money, the three suspects left each scene empty-handed.

Following a failed robbery at a pizza restaurant the four suspects in the stolen car fled the area, leaving the teen behind as police arrived on the scene. The SIU says the suspect attempted to car-jack three vehicles before fleeing into a nearby bank. The brief standoff between police and the teen was captured on cell phone video by one of the individuals who thwarted his attempt to car-jack her vehicle.

Watch Tammie Sutherland’s report from July 27, 2017.

The SIU says a police officer fired two shots, one of which hit the suspect, who was transported to hospital where he “underwent numerous surgeries” to try and repair the internal damage suffered from the gunshot wound. The suspect died a month later due to “complications from a gunshot wound to the torso.”

The SIU investigation found that the gun the suspect used at the time of the shooting was an unloaded pellet gun which looked similar in appearance to an authentic .45-calibre semi-automatic handgun. However, the report noted that none of the witnesses or police prior to the shooting could not tell whether it was a real handgun or a pellet gun.

While SIU director Tony Loparco called the shooting a “tragic loss of life” involving a 15-year-old, he determined that the officer used “no more force than was necessary” to protect himself and others from harm or possible death.