- A one-year-old boy has been fatally shot after
Ontario police officers opened fire on a pick-up truck while investigating an alleged kidnapping incident. - The Special Investigations Unit have said it is too early to tell if it was the police who accidentally killed the boy, but did confirm that he died of a gunshot wound.
- Ontario Provincial Police were alerted to a father who kidnapped his son early on November 26, and soon found located a vehicle of interest.
- Three police officers opened fire after a collision of the vehicle, and the driver of the pick-up truck was airlifted to hospital.
- Seven investigators have been assigned to the case by the SIU, while the three police officers involved have been designated.
A one-year-old boy has been fatally shot in
Ontario's Special Investigations Unit has said it is too early to tell what exactly transpired during the incident and cannot confirm if it was indeed the police who accidentally killed the infant.
However, National Post reported that SIU spokeswoman Monica Hudson said in an email that the boy died of a gunshot wound.
In Hudson's official statement, she confirmed that three of the officers fired their guns at the vehicle after an "interaction" between a 33-year-old vehicle driver and police officers. The driver was hit by a bullet and airlifted to a hospital.
Of the child, Hudson wrote: "Inside the pickup truck was a one-year-old boy. He had sustained a gunshot wound and was pronounced deceased at the scene." The incident occurred after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were alerted at around 8:46 am on November 26 that a father had been accused of abducting his son from the Municipality of Trent Lakes.
Police were dispatched and located the truck in the City of Kawartha Lakes. The shooting occurred after an attempt by the OPP to force the driver to stop ended in a collision between his truck, an OPP cruiser, and a civilian vehicle.
Hudson also reported an OPP officer outside of the vehicles was struck by the pickup and "sustained serious injuries." The officer is in stable condition in hospital, while the father and driver of the vehicle is also still in hospital. A post-mortem has been scheduled for the one-year-old boy.
The OPP commissioner, Thomas Carrique, asked via Twitter that "@SIUOntario and @YRP be given time to investigate, without speculation on the events as they unfolded."
Carrique added: "Our thoughts & prayers are with those that are suffering today."
—Thomas Carrique (@OPPCommissioner) November 26, 2020
An investigation into the incident has been ordered, with four investigators, two forensic investigators and one collision reconstructionist assigned to the case.
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