One-year-old dead, police officer seriously injured after shooting near Lindsay, Ontario

The Special Investigations Unit is investigating an interaction near Lindsay, Ontario between a 33-year-old man and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) which left the man’s one year old son dead. The man and an OPP officer were also severely injured, CP24 reports.

This happened after the OPP received a domestic dispute call to the Trent Lakes municipality around 9 am, a firearm was involved in the dispute. The OPP was made aware that the man was potentially abducting his son, says the SIU.

OPP officers later attempted to stop a vehicle of interest, but that vehicle crashed into an OPP cruiser a short time later.

Following the crash, the SIU says a confrontation emerged between that driver and police, resulting in firearms being discharged by the three officers. The police then arrested the man, who was airlifted to a Toronto trauma centre in serious condition.

The man’s one-year-old son was then found dead in the car, he had a gunshot wound. One of the officers was sent to hospital, and is now in stable condition.

Monica Hudon, a spokesperson for the SIU, said that six investigators, one collision reconstructionist, and three subject officers have been assigned to the case. However, Hudon says that they do not yet know why the officers shot the man.

"It's too early for us to know what exactly transpired. And that's what our investigation will determine," she said.

Chris Lewis, former OPP Commissioner and CTV News public safety analyst, spoke to CP24 Thursday night. He said that the investigation will partly look into who shot and killed the boy.

"There's so much unknown about this. And a lot of that won't be known in the near future because the SIU is investigating the use of force by the OPP officers," Lewis said.

CP24 also asked if police should have acted differently, to which he said "These are always difficult situations. When someone's fleeing from police, that's always a difficult judgment call on the part of the communication center, the supervisors and the officers as to when to stop that pursuit."

Lewis added that decisions become very complicated for police officers when children are involved.

"Do you let someone that's a threat potentially to that child continue on and not chase them? It has to be handled very carefully," he said.

"They try a variety of ways to get those vehicles stopped when that occurs, without causing injury to anyone. And sometimes it doesn't go as well as it could."