NIPIGON, Ont. – The province’s Special Investigations Unit has invoked its mandate and will look into a fatal shooting in Nipigon involving an Ontario Provincial Police officer.
In a release issued late on Saturday night, the SIU said OPP were called to a home on Park Road at about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, where they encountered a man and there was an interaction. An officer discharged his firearm, striking the man.
The 45-year-old victim was taken to Nipigon District Memorial Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
According to SIU officials, investigators have designated one subject officer and eight witness officers involved in the incident.
Neighbours in the area were shaken by the event, saying that things like this just don't happen in Nipigon. Judith Mccullough, who lives two doors down from the scene, described hearing the incident unfold.
"I was in my bedroom and I heard a big shot," she said. "It sounded like it was right from my bedroom. It was around seven o'clock. Then I came out here and I heard the ambulance. The ambulance was buzzing, all the lights."
Mccullough said a mother, daughter, and two grandaughters live in the Park Road residence and the victim of the shooting did not. She added that the granddaughters were not home at the time of the shooting.
"I know the man was shot in the doorway of that house," she said. "It was a terrible thing. I feel sorry for that police man. That’s a bad thing to have to live with."
"We don’t have this happen around town, somebody getting shot," Mccullough added.
Four investigators and three forensic investigators have been assigned to look into the incident and were on the scene Sunday afternoon. The SIU urges anyone with information to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529 at extension 2314.
The SIU is called into investigate cases when there has been a death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault involving a police officer.
Police have not released any further details about the shooting or said why they used deadly force in the incident. The OPP was contacted for comment, but declined at this time, saying inquiries must go through the SIU.
