‘Does he have the son?’ Recordings reveal chaos, confusion as charges dropped in fatal OPP shooting of toddler
Three OPP officers were not aware 18-month-old Jameson Shapiro was in the driver’s seat when they fired upon his father, who was holding a gun, prosecutors said in an Oshawa court on Monday.
Moments before three OPP officers fatally shot an 18-month-old child, police and emergency dispatchers were rushing to determine whether the toddler was with his father, an “unpredictable” man with a history of violence and mental health issues who was armed with a gun.
“Did we confirm? Does he have the son? I just — I’m not sure if we should maybe terminate it if he’s got a child,” said Const. Nathan Vanderheyden in newly released recordings revealing the chaotic pursuit leading up to the fatal 2020 police shooting of Jameson Shapiro and his father at a roadblock on a rural Kawartha Lakes highway.
The recordings were made public Monday as the criminal trial for the three Ontario Provincial Police officers charged in the toddler’s death came to a sudden end inside an Oshawa courtroom. In a brief appearance, Crown prosecutors withdrew all charges against the officers — one charge each of manslaughter, aggravated assault, and reckless discharge of a firearm — saying there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.
Evidence heard at the preliminary hearing, alongside an unusual defence decision to share the officers’ notes ahead of trial, established that Vanderheyden and constables Kenneth Pengelly and Grayson Cappus fired their weapons in self-defence, prosecutor Ian Bulmer said. They’d made the split-second decision after witnessing 33-year-old William Shapiro slam his truck into an OPP officer then point a handgun out the window, and had fired with precision only at the driver’s side of the vehicle.
They didn’t know that Shapiro was holding his young son in his lap, Bulmer said.
“His death was a tragic, unintended consequence of shots fired by the defendants in a genuine situation of self-defence,” Bulmer said.
Moments after the charges were withdrawn, the officers and their supporters exchanged tearful hugs. Their lawyers and the officers’ union called the outcome “just” but said it was a sombre day.
“It’s such a huge sense of relief but there’s no celebration here — this is a tragedy for everybody involved,” said defence lawyer Harry Black.
Documents filed during the hearing reveal new details about the unprecedented case, believed to be the first time in the 30-year history of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) that the watchdog had investigated the police shooting of a young child. According to the agreed statement of facts, Shapiro showed up at the home of his estranged wife, Jameson’s mother, at 3 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2020, armed with a stolen Colt .45 handgun.
“He showed her the handgun and told her that he was going to kill all of them, the ‘real estate agents’ and himself,” according to the document.
Shapiro had a criminal record, substance abuse problems and mental health issues that worsened after buying a family home then fixating “on deficiencies in that residence,” the document states. In December 2019, he was charged with criminal harassment after he damaged the builder’s home, and he had a history of domestic violence; he strangled his mother and in June 2020 he was found guilty of assaulting his ex-partner, the statement of facts said.
Transcripts and audio from the radio communications, meanwhile, shed new light on increasingly confusing circumstances as officers pursued Shapiro.
“The caller is indicating that the male took their two-year-old son,” a dispatcher reports at the start of the call, which came in at 8:49 a.m.
“OK, just getting an update here, the child was not taken,” he adds a moment later.
As officers nearby radio in that they are heading toward the home, they ask about Shapiro — “What’s the story with William, do you know?” one asks.
“He does have diagnosed mental health issues,” one answered.
An official notes Shapiro is flagged for unpredictable behaviour — “in past, has made comments to friends and wife that he would die by suicide by police,” he says.
“If he’s unmedicated, he is very very unpredictable,” another officer notes.
Updates come in that Shapiro is on the move, driving a rust-coloured 2016 Toyota Tundra. Vanderheyden, among the first to respond, spots the truck in North Bobcaygeon, heading west on a rural, two-lane highway called Pigeon Lake Road.
“I’m just keeping my distance, in case he tries to fire rounds or something,” Vanderheyden said, before asking if the child was in the car then contemplating whether to call off the pursuit if he was.
“I’m still trying to confirm,” a dispatcher said.
Vanderheyden later pipes in: “Confirmed male. He’s got a handgun. He’s holding it out the window … He’s got the gun to his head.”
Const. Chris Dobbs then radios in, saying he’s on Pigeon Lake Road; Vanderheyden tells him police are going to need to lay down a spike belt — “Make sure you have cover,” he says to Dobbs.
Vanderheyden then says Shapiro is speeding down the wet and foggy highway, eventually reaching nearly 180 kilometres an hour.
“Just to confirm again to the units, just be advised (there’s) child in that vehicle, there’s a child in the vehicle,” one officer says.
Vanderheyden issues a warning to an officer setting down the spike belt: “He’s pretty desperate, he had a gun to his head, just make sure if he tries to go straight into your cruiser or something, just make sure you’ve got some sort of cover buddy.”
Moments later, audio of the call captures the sound of a collision, followed by moaning. Someone radios in, “We need an ambulance right away.”
Then, seconds later: “Drop your gun. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it. Drop it.”
A barrage of shots going off can then be heard.
“We need a f—-ing ambulance,” someone says, then: “Shot fired. Officer down. Officer down.”
Vanderheyden radios in to confirm that multiple shots were fired into the vehicle and requests an ambulance. Dobbs, one of the officers setting down the spike belt, had been struck and was “very injured.”
Then, an update.
“Child was in the vehicle.” He has no vital signs. Soon, he is confirmed dead.
Shapiro, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, died a week later in hospital. Dobbs, who was struck when Shapiro collided with an OPP vehicle and another car, survived but suffered critical injuries.
In court Monday, Bulmer detailed the extensive investigation done by the SIU. Forensic ballistic testing showed officers “did not engage in a panicked, haphazard discharge of their firearms” but had aimed their firearms at the driver’s seat. A bloodstain pattern analysis concluded that both Jameson and William Shapiro were in the “driver’s seating area” at the time of the shooting.
Officers’ notes had stated Shapiro was pointing his gun towards them immediately before police fired, and forensic analysis showed there were bullets in the chamber of Shapiro’s gun, but it had jammed, Bulmer said. It was likely that a jury would conclude the shots fired by the officers were justified, he said.
“It is clear that William Shapiro is the person who’s most responsible for the events that occurred that day,” he said.
Bulmer noted, however, that questions remain about police conduct in the case that could warrant examination at a coroner’s inquest, mandatory in Ontario after police-involved deaths. That could include scrutinizing the use of C8 rifles at close range; the court heard during the preliminary inquiry that the powerful gun was fired from between six and seven feet away from the truck, which “may be cause for concern,” Bulmer said.
The officers were charged in 2022. During the prolonged investigation, the SIU took the rare step of bringing on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to perform specialized ballistic testing.
Outside court, Joseph Markson, the lawyer for Pengelly, said his client has been living daily with the horror created by Shapiro’s “hellish” actions.
“He was the author of this tragedy,” Markson said.
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