No charges for Toronto police in fatal shooting: SIU

By News Staff

No Toronto police officers will be charged in the fatal shooting of Alexander Wettlaufer, the province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said Tuesday.

Wettlaufer, 21, was shot and killed in North York in the early morning hours of March 14, 2016.

The SIU said that Wettlaufer, known as Alex, called police from a payphone at Leslie subway station. He reported that two people were fighting and that one of them had a gun. He also said that one of the men was named Alex, and gave police his phone number.

He was speaking about himself, the SIU said Tuesday. In their investigation, they found no evidence of a fight, or a second person.

At the time, police dispatched officers to the station and eventually found Wettlaufer close to Villaways Park, near Leslie Street and Sheppard Avenue East.

The SIU said officers followed Wettlaufer into the park. During a brief chase, and later on a footbridge over the Don River, Wettlaufer pointed a gun at police, the SIU said.

At that point, Emergency Task Force (ETF) officers arrived. Wettlaufer was on the phone with 911 operator, but the ETF asked the operator to hang up, so Wettlaufer could focus on the police. Police also ended a call between Wettlaufer and a sibling.

Wettlaufer, despite repeated requests, did not put down his gun, the SIU said. Three officers fired a total of four shots, with three bullets hitting him.

After his death, police found that Wettlaufer’s weapon was a BB gun.

None of the three officers agreed “to an interview with the SIU or to the release of their duty notes, as is their legal right,” the SIU said.

“There is no doubt in my mind” that the shooting was justified, SIU director Tony Loparco said.

“Mr. Wettlaufer presented a very real danger to the members of the ETF and the other officers on scene … over the course of a lengthy standoff, he ignored multiple opportunities to peacefully surrender himself into custody.”

Loparco also said that Wettlaufer’s “actions lead me to the conclusion that he was attempting to bait the police into fatally shooting him by creating a perilous situation. My conclusion is further informed by the various comments that Mr. Wettlaufer made to the 911 operator, including his desire to be killed. His intentions, while tragic, were also clear.”

The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

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