The facts date back to 2020. At the time, a one-and-a-half-year-old child was killed in a shooting in Ontario. Two years later, three Canadian police officers have been charged with manslaughter, an independent government body announced on Wednesday. They are also charged with criminal negligence causing death. All three officers are scheduled to appear in Ontario Court of Justice on October 6.
The 18-month-old child died in Kawartha Lakes, about 100 kilometers north of Toronto, on November 26, 2020 in a shooting involving his father and police. He had been shot in his father’s van and died instantly.
Abduction of the child by his father
“The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Joseph Martino, has reasonable grounds to believe that three Ontario Provincial Police officers have committed criminal offenses in connection with the death (…) of Jameson Shapiro “, is it written, in a short press release from the organization. “Therefore, Mr. Martino recommends that charges be brought against each of the officers.”
The body had previously said that the police, after being informed that a father had abducted his son, had then spotted the van and tried to intercept it. The vehicle had collided with two cars, including one of the police. A policeman, who was outside the latter, had been seriously injured. A shootout erupted afterwards.
In early 2021, the SIU had concluded that “the death of the child (…) resulted from a shooting by the police”. The organization had also mentioned the seizure of the three firearms from the police, and specified that a pistol had been found in the van. The child’s father, a 33-year-old man, was seriously injured and was transported by air ambulance and died in hospital a few days later.