There are still no answers from an ongoing investigation by Ontario’s police watchdog into the November 26th confrontation in Kawartha Lakes between police and a 33-year-old man that resulted in his fatal wounding and the shooting death of his infant son at the scene — and the three police officers who were directly involved in the incident have yet to be interviewed.
According to an update provided by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) on Friday afternoon (January 14), little has changed since the SIU’s previous update on December 14th.
Since the December update, the SIU has interviewed an additional four witness officers (for a total of 18 witness officers interviewed to date) and an additional two civilian witnesses (for a total of 14 civilian witnesses interviewed to date).
However, the SIU states it has not interviewed the three subject officers who each discharged their firearm during the course of the incident, as they “have not as yet availed themselves of an opportunity to be interviewed.”
“Subject officers are under no legal obligation to speak with the SIU but may if they choose to do so,” the SIU states.
The SIU also says it is still awaiting the reports of the post-mortem examinations of the child and his father, which were completed on November 28th and December 4th respectively.
The SIU says the Centre of Forensic Sciences has completed its analysis of the father’s pickup truck — including an exterior examination of the pickup truck, a blood pattern analysis of the truck’s interior, and an initial projectile trajectory analysis — and the SIU is awaiting the report.
The pickup truck was recently released to the SIU, whose forensic investigators have begun a further search for evidence.
The firearms recovered from the scene — including two police-issued rifles, one police-issued pistol, and a pistol located in the pickup truck — along with a number of spent cartridge cases are still with the Centre of Forensic Sciences for examination.
In its most recent update, the SIU repeats the same statement made in its December 14th update.
“Understandably, there is a pressing public interest in this case, including how the child died and whether it was gunfire from the father or OPP officers that caused the death. The SIU is working to make these determinations.”
On December 14th, the SIU added “Doing so, however, requires time as key evidence must be examined methodically in line with best practices.”
In the January 15th update, the SIU added “In so doing, it is imperative that best investigative practices be strictly adhered to, including the sequencing of various forensic examinations in the proper order.”
