OPP officers cleared by SIU after Burk’s Falls shooting deat

When police officers are involved in incidents where someone has been seriously injured, dies or alleges sexual assault, the Special Investigations Unit has the statutory mandate to conduct independent investigations to determine whether a criminal offence took place.

OPP officers cleared by SIU after Burk’s Falls shooting deat

Postby Thomas » Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:24 pm

OPP officers cleared by SIU after Burk’s Falls shooting death

The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has found no reasonable grounds to believe two Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers committed an offence in connection with the shooting death of a woman in Burk’s Falls last summer.

The SIU says on August 5, 2021, officers from the OPP Almaguin Highlands Detachment responded to a disturbance call at a cottage in Burk’s Falls.

The police watchdog says the officers came across the woman who swung a knife through the open driver’s door window of their cruiser.

The SIU says she advanced toward an officer with the knife and ignored repeated commands for her to drop the weapon.

“One officer fired his gun four times at the woman while at the same time the other officer shot his gun three times,” states a release. “The woman was struck four times and fell to the ground. The officers provided CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive. The woman was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

The SIU says Joseph Martino, SIU Director, was satisfied that the officers acted reasonably when they sought to protect themselves from a potentially lethal attack with a resort to lethal force of their own, leaving no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.

https://www.mynorthbaynow.com/90053/new ... ing-death/
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SIU Concludes Investigation Into OPP Officers’ Shooting Deat

Postby Thomas » Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:25 pm

SIU Concludes Investigation Into OPP Officers’ Shooting Death Of Woman In Burk’s Falls

The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe that two Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers committed a criminal offence in connection with fatally shooting a 38-year-old woman last August.

On August 5, 2021, OPP Almaguin Highlands Detachment officers went to a cottage in Burk’s Falls for a call about a disturbance.

There, the officers came across the woman who swung a knife through the open driver’s door window of their cruiser.

This was followed by the woman advancing towards an officer with the knife. The woman ignored repeated commands for her to drop the weapon.

One officer fired his gun four times at the woman while at the same time the other officer shot his gun three times.

The woman was struck four times and fell to the ground. The officers provided CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive.

The woman was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Director Martino was satisfied that the officers acted reasonably when they sought to protect themselves from a potentially lethal attack with a resort to lethal force of their own, leaving no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.

Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision): https://siu.on.ca/en/directors_report_d ... ?drid=2095

https://muskoka411.com/siu-concludes-in ... rks-falls/
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‘I will be my daughter’s voice’: Mother of woman fatally sho

Postby Thomas » Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:31 pm

‘I will be my daughter’s voice’: Mother of woman fatally shot by Almaguin OPP reacts to SIU ruling

Sheena Jackson was more than just SIU case file #21-PFD-244. She was a daughter, a sister, a partner, a grieving mother. She was a survivor who had dreams of someday writing a book about her extensive travels.

But 38-year-old Sheena’s life was cut short on Aug. 5, 2021 when she was fatally shot four times by Almaguin OPP officers, according to an Aug. 23, 2022 report from the Special Investigations Unit.

The police watchdog was called in to investigate the circumstances surrounding Sheena’s death following the OPP’s response to a call of an “unwanted person” at Ye Olde Cutter Camp, a campground in Burk’s Falls where Sheena, originally from Oshawa, loved to spend her summers.

A year after her death, the SIU found the two OPP officers who fatally shot the mother of three did not commit a criminal offence.

Days before the SIU ruling, Almaguin News spoke with Sheena’s mother Melanie Jackson about her daughter’s life and the impact her untimely death has had.

“Her passing has left such a big hole in my heart,” Melanie said. “All I have left are pictures and memories.”

Melanie, who lives in Oshawa, read from the tear-stained pages of a notebook in which she has written the story of her daughter’s life in preparation to speak with our reporter.

“I will be my daughter’s voice,” Melanie said. “Sheena and I always had a close relationship, no matter what life put us through. We always say, ‘I love you.’ We said that in good times and in bad times.”

Following the release of the SIU report, Melanie said: “I am not pleased with the investigation.”

According to investigators, “there are no reasonable grounds to believe that either (officer) committed a criminal offence in connection with (Sheena’s) death.”

Roger Jackson, Sheena’s older brother, is blunt in his assessment of the report, calling the results of the investigation “disgusting.”

According to the SIU report, director Joseph Martino stated the SIU was satisfied that the officers acted reasonably when they sought to protect themselves from “a potentially lethal attack with a resort to lethal force of their own,” leaving no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.

“I’m appalled,” Roger continued. “My sister was a good person. She’d do anything to help anyone.”

“Words can’t describe how angry I am, how frustrated I am,” he said. “I’m not myself anymore. I miss my sister.”

Just six-and-a-half weeks before her death, Sheena’s 20-year-old daughter, Chloe Kreisz, died of an overdose. It was the second child Sheena buried after losing her six-year-old son Kurtis to brain cancer in 2010.

“If those cops had a quarter of the heart (Sheena) had, they wouldn’t have done this,” he said. “And my sister would be in the car with me and my mom and we’d be going to my grandma’s on her 77th birthday and we wouldn’t be crying.”

Melanie vividly remembers the last conversation she had with her daughter, just hours before she was fatally shot. Sheena, struggling with Chloe’s death, had called her mother for help.

“‘Mom, I’m having a really rough time,’” Melanie recalled her daughter saying over the phone. “‘Could you please come and pick me up in Burk’s Falls?’

“She was a grieving mom, grieving the loss of her daughter,” Melanie said. “That was the last time we ever spoke.”

The following day, Aug. 6, 2021, Melanie received a phone call from a resident of the campground who had called to break the news that her daughter had been shot by police and died.

“I dropped to my knees and cried,” she recalled. “I was in shock. I just didn’t know what to do.”

A year on from the tragic circumstances surrounding Sheena’s death — which, despite the SIU report, are still unclear to the Jackson family — Melanie is choosing to focus on her memories of Sheena. She remembers her daughter’s love of camping and the outdoors, her love for her own children, one of whom survives her. And, when butterflies come to visit Melanie in her garden, she knows it means her daughter’s spirit is nearby.

Adding to her own memories, Melanie says residents of the campground reached out after Sheena’s death to share their stories of the time they spent with her.

“I was so blessed to have had such a beautiful daughter,” she said. “My daughter became a beautiful young lady; very kind-hearted and always wanting to help others.”

https://www.northbaynipissing.com/news- ... iu-ruling/
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OPP cleared in shooting death of woman in Burk's Falls

Postby Thomas » Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:38 pm

Ontario Provincial Police in Burk's Falls have been cleared in the shooting death of a woman who came at them with a knife in August of 2021.

Police were called at 8:19 p.m. on Aug. 5 of that year to respond to a complaint of an unwanted person at a residence. The person said the woman, with whom he was sharing a cottage, was becoming violent.

"The complainant, who had warrants outstanding for her arrest, had kicked his cat and swung a rake at him multiple times," said the incident narrative from the Special Investigations unit.


"She was inebriated, suffered from mental illness, and might have access to a hunting knife. (The person who called police) wanted her removed from the property. Police officers were dispatched to the address."

Police arrived around 8:30 p.m. and spoke briefly with the person who had called them. Then the woman approached the police cruiser, yelling and carrying a knife in her left hand.

"As she reached the driver’s door, the complainant started swinging at the officer through the open window with the knife," the SIU report said.

"(The officer) repeatedly yelled at her to drop the knife as he tried to defend himself. His vest, upper body and legs were struck several times. At one point, in an effort to create distance with the complainant, he pushed himself towards the passenger side of his vehicle."

At that point, the woman walked around to the rear and was confronted by both police officers, guns drawn, about seven metres away.

"The officers yelled at the complainant to drop the knife, but she continued to wave it in their direction," the report said.

"The complainant advanced on the officers with the knife raised in her hand, and was shot as she neared to within five metres."

One officer fired four rounds from his 9 mm Glock semi-automatic pistol, the other officer fired three times. The woman was hit by four bullets and died of her wounds.

"Paramedics arrived at the scene at about 8:40 p.m. and took over the complainant’s care," the report said.

"She could not be resuscitated, and was subsequently pronounced deceased at the scene."

In his decision, SIU director Joseph Martino wrote that police, when their life is in danger, can use lethal force to stop an attack. One of the officers said he fired because he believed his life was in danger.

"There is nothing in the evidence to refute his assertion," Martino wrote.

"On the contrary, the circumstances support the officer’s claim and the reasonableness of his belief. Moments prior, (the other officer on the scene) had been fending off an assault by the complainant as she swung at him with a knife through the open driver’s door window of his cruiser."

The decision to use lethal force was lawful, considering the weapon she was using in her attack.

"The situation in which the officers found themselves also persuades me that their resort to gunfire was not unreasonable," the report said.

"The complainant had in her possession a knife with a blade of some 10 centimetres in length, clearly capable of causing death as she neared to within five metres of the officers ... Retreat or withdrawal were not realistic options in the circumstances."

While there was testimony from witnesses that said the woman was standing in place when she was shot, Martino said the physical evidence contradicted those claims.

"That evidence, however, is fundamentally undercut by the location of the complainant’s body after the shooting, namely, by the rear driver’s side of the pickup truck," the report said.

"The account, which had the complainant by the front driver’s side of the truck at the time of the shooting, simply does not accord with where she ended up."

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/opp- ... -1.6040752
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