Two Peel Regional Police officers fired their weapons at the departures drop-off area outside Toronto's Pearson airport on April 24 after a man in mental distress pulled out an air pistol. Airport security called officers after the man's sister reported he was refusing to exit a vehicle for a flight to the Yukon and was distressed by a combination of mental illness and drug consumption. The man believed his sister was manipulating him and said he did not trust police. The man stepped out and pointed the gun at officers, prompting them to fire. An autopsy found fatal chest gunshot wounds. The SIU found the officers' resort to firearms constituted reasonable defensive force, noted attempts to de-escalate, and said it could not conclude the officers exceeded their authority despite gunfire continuing after the man collapsed.
The SIU says officers were called to the departures drop-off area outside Terminal 1 at about 6:38 a.m. on April 24 by airport security, after a woman asked for help because her brother was reportedly in distress due to a combination of mental illness and drug consumption. The report says the woman reported that her brother was refusing to exit the vehicle to get on a flight to the Yukon, where he had previously agreed to attend a treatment program,
"I am satisfied that the subject officials' resort to their firearms constituted reasonable defensive force," SIU director Joseph Martino wrote in the report. "The police officers ... were lawfully placed and in the execution of their duty through the series of events culminating in gunfire," he wrote, noting that the officers had attempted to de-escalate the situation before the shooting.
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