Police watchdog clears OPP officer involved in 2024 fatal shooting in Kenora, Ont.
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Ontario’s police watchdog says it has found no reasonable grounds to believe a provincial police officer committed a crime when he fatally shot a 57-year-old man at a Kenora, Ont., park last year.
The Special Investigations Unit says OPP officers were at Anicinabe Park on the afternoon of June 25, 2024, when a man doused himself with gasoline, picked up two large knives then set fire to a food concession.
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The SIU says the man was standing close to the fire when officers asked him to move away so it could be extinguished.
It says the man stepped toward firefighters while brandishing knives, and a police officer then shot the man with a rifle.
The agency says the man was taken to hospital where he underwent surgery for bullet wounds to his chest and abdomen but later died.
The SIU says the officer’s use of gunfire constituted reasonable force, and there’s no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in the case.
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