A 25-year-old man is in critical condition in hospital and is currently undergoing surgery after being shot three times by a Toronto police officer early Tuesday morning in Scarborough, the province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says.
Speaking with reporters at the scene, SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette said at about 2:30 a.m. Toronto police were called to a residential address on Sherwood Avenue for a report of a man in distress who was believed to have a knife.
She said when officers arrived at the scene there was an “interaction” between one officer and that man resulting in a conducted energy weapon, also known as a Taser, being discharged.
Denette said an officer then shot at the man four times, striking him three times.
Toronto paramedics transported the man to a trauma centre in life-threatening condition.
He is now in surgery, Denette said.
The incident happened in the basement unit of a bungalow on Sherwood Avenue, just east of Pharmacy Avenue and south of Lawrence Avenue East, in the Wexford-Maryvale neighbourhood.
Denette said it is unclear at this time how many people may or may not have been in the home at the time of the shooting, however a TTC bus was brought in to shelter a number of people impacted by the incident. She also noted that investigators conducted some witness interviews in that vehicle.
Around 6:30 a.m., the province’s police watchdog was called in and invoked its mandate. The SIU is a civilian agency that investigates when police are involved in an incident that results in death, serious injury, sexual assault, and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
One subject officer and five witness officers have now been designated in this case.
Investigators remain at the scene and are still in the process of speaking with witnesses and gathering information.
