Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is probing the circumstances after a man was shot dead by police in Scarborough Friday afternoon.
According to the SIU, security guards called police around 12:45 p.m. after they spotted a “suspicious male” outside the TD Bank at 2428 Eglinton Ave. E, near Kennedy Rd.
Witnesses told CTV Toronto that a man armed with a machete walked south on Kennedy Rd. across Eglinton and confronted an officer.
“The cop said, ‘Back up, back up,’” one female witness said. “And he still kept coming and four rounds of shots went off.”
The SIU said two officers, one male and one female, discharged their firearms.
Cellphone video taken by a worker in a nearby office building showed the victim lying on the ground with an officer performing CPR as an ambulance arrived at the scene.
The victim was taken to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where he was pronounced dead. His identity has not been released.
In a news release, the SIU said it has assigned six investigators and three forensic investigators to its probe of the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call the lead investigator at 416-622-1886 or 800-787-8529, ext. 1886.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates incidences involving police officers that resulted in death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s John Musselman
