OPP cleared in shooting death of woman in Burk's Falls

Ontario Provincial Police in Burk's Falls have been cleared in the shooting death of a woman who came at them with this knife in August of 2021. (Supplied)

Ontario Provincial Police in Burk's Falls have been cleared in the shooting death of a woman who came at them with a knife in August of 2021.

Police were called at 8:19 p.m. on Aug. 5 of that year to respond to a complaint of an unwanted person at a residence. The person said the woman, with whom he was sharing a cottage, was becoming violent.

"The complainant, who had warrants outstanding for her arrest, had kicked his cat and swung a rake at him multiple times," said the incident narrative from the Special Investigations unit.

"She was inebriated, suffered from mental illness, and might have access to a hunting knife. (The person who called police) wanted her removed from the property. Police officers were dispatched to the address."

Police arrived around 8:30 p.m. and spoke briefly with the person who had called them. Then the woman approached the police cruiser, yelling and carrying a knife in her left hand.

"As she reached the driver’s door, the complainant started swinging at the officer through the open window with the knife," the SIU report said.

"(The officer) repeatedly yelled at her to drop the knife as he tried to defend himself. His vest, upper body and legs were struck several times. At one point, in an effort to create distance with the complainant, he pushed himself towards the passenger side of his vehicle."

At that point, the woman walked around to the rear and was confronted by both police officers, guns drawn, about seven metres away.

"The officers yelled at the complainant to drop the knife, but she continued to wave it in their direction," the report said.

"The complainant advanced on the officers with the knife raised in her hand, and was shot as she neared to within five metres."

One officer fired four rounds from his 9 mm Glock semi-automatic pistol, the other officer fired three times. The woman was hit by four bullets and died of her wounds.

"Paramedics arrived at the scene at about 8:40 p.m. and took over the complainant’s care," the report said.

"She could not be resuscitated, and was subsequently pronounced deceased at the scene."

In his decision, SIU director Joseph Martino wrote that police, when their life is in danger, can use lethal force to stop an attack. One of the officers said he fired because he believed his life was in danger.

"There is nothing in the evidence to refute his assertion," Martino wrote.

"On the contrary, the circumstances support the officer’s claim and the reasonableness of his belief. Moments prior, (the other officer on the scene) had been fending off an assault by the complainant as she swung at him with a knife through the open driver’s door window of his cruiser."

The decision to use lethal force was lawful, considering the weapon she was using in her attack.

"The situation in which the officers found themselves also persuades me that their resort to gunfire was not unreasonable," the report said.

"The complainant had in her possession a knife with a blade of some 10 centimetres in length, clearly capable of causing death as she neared to within five metres of the officers ... Retreat or withdrawal were not realistic options in the circumstances."

While there was testimony from witnesses that said the woman was standing in place when she was shot, Martino said the physical evidence contradicted those claims.

"That evidence, however, is fundamentally undercut by the location of the complainant’s body after the shooting, namely, by the rear driver’s side of the pickup truck," the report said.

"The account, which had the complainant by the front driver’s side of the truck at the time of the shooting, simply does not accord with where she ended up."

Read the full report here.