The Special Investigations Unit will not lay charges against two Guelph police officers who shot and killed a man inside Guelph General Hospital in May.
“There are no reasonable grounds, in my view, to believe that either subject officer exceeded the ambit of justifiable force in the circumstances,” SIU Director Tony Loparco stated in a March 2 report.
On May 20, after spending some time in the waiting room at Guelph General Hospital, Brandon Duncan, 36, told a registered nurse he had an issue with his colostomy bag and asked for scissors.
The nurse provided him with a pair of bandage scissors, the SIU report states, and Duncan returned to the triage area several minutes later bleeding profusely from cuts on both his forearms.
Duncan then tried to stab a woman with the scissors but her boyfriend intervened and pushed Duncan away.
Two nearby Guelph police officers heard the woman scream and rushed towards the assault. Duncan turned to the officers, still brandishing the scissors, so both officers drew their guns and pointed them at Duncan.
Despite commands to “stop advancing and put down the weapon,” Duncan continued to advance; “only when there were no other apparent options available did the officers open fire almost simultaneously,” Loparco stated in his report.
Duncan was shot six times and died.
“As soon as the officers entered the scene they could see an assault in progress involving a man armed with a pair of scissors who was acting in a violent manner,” said Loparco.
“The man’s arms were covered in blood. From that point onwards, it was a matter of seconds until the shooting, at which time I have no doubt that both officers feared for their own lives, the lives of one another, and those of the various civilians in the immediate area.”
Report available
The SIU investigation involved eight investigators, three forensic investigators, eight surveillance videos from inside and outside the hospital, and interviews with more than two dozen witnesses.
The full SIU report is available at http://www.siu.on.ca/en/News_template.php?nrid=2563.
