Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating after police shot and killed a 73-year-old man in Haliburton County who had previously refused to wear a mask and allegedly assaulted a grocery store employee.
Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating after officers fatally shot a 73-year-old man in Haliburton County on Wednesday morning.
The man had refused to wear a mask and allegedly assaulted a grocery store employee before driving away, Ontario Provincial Police say.
Police were called to a Valu-Mart in Minden, Ont., just after 8 a.m., OPP Sgt. Jason Folz said.
Officers tried to stop the suspect’s car, but they refrained “in the interest of public safety” before doing a follow-up investigation, Folz said.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said the man drove away, and an officer saw the car and started following it for a short while. Based on the licence plate, officers made their way to a home on Indian Point Road, the SIU said.
2 officers fire guns, says SIU
Outside the home there was an “interaction,” and two police officers fired their guns, the SIU said.
Folz said that after shots were fired, “additional resources” were brought to the area near Eagle Lake, by the village of Haliburton, about 215 kilometres northeast of Toronto.
The man was shot and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:47 a.m., the SIU said.
Folz said the victim was from the Eagle Lake area. He could not confirm if the man also had a weapon.
People at the grocery store had concerns about the way the man was driving in the parking lot and on the highway, he said.
