No charges against Hamilton cop who fired gun at suspect during September 2022 arrest

Ontario's police watchdog says no charges are warranted against a Hamilton police officer who shot at a 44-year-old man under arrest last September.

In a release Friday, director Joseph Martino said the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has found no reasonable grounds" to believe the officer committed a criminal offence.

The man was not struck by a bullet and did not suffer any serious injuries," the release reads.

The officer fired his gun during an arrest in a central Hamilton parking lot in the early-morning hours of Sept. 8, 2022. No one was shot during the incident on East Avenue North between King William Street and King Street East. Officers were called to the area shortly after 1 a.m. to investigate a suspect with a firearm prior to the incident.

Evidence from the Jan. 6 report shows the bullet struck a fence in a municipal parking lot on East Avenue. In a transcription of an audio recording from the Sept. 8 incident, a dispatcher reported over police radio a male putting firearm in his mouth." Security footage from the incident showed the suspect holding something to his mouth with his right hand.

Martino said the officer could have used a Taser, but it doesn't have immediate stopping power of a firearm." Initial attempts to Taser the man under arrest were unsuccessful, the report reads.

It is difficult to see what else the (officer) could have done to save himself from grievous bodily harm or death," he said.

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com