LONDON, Ont. - A coroner's inquest will be held into the fatal shootings of an Ontario Provincial Police officer and the man who was charged with the constable's killing.
Const. Vu Pham, 37, was gunned down on the side of a country road in March in southwestern Ontario.
Fred Preston, who was shot six times in a subsequent gun battle with another officer, was facing a first-degree murder charge before he died in hospital.
An announcement about a date and location for the inquest was to be made later.
News of the coroner's inquest into both deaths comes one day after the province's Special Investigations Unit released its final report into the shooting.
The report released Wednesday clears Const. Del Mercy, the officer who returned fire that day and shot Preston.
The SIU report says Preston, 70, broke into his sister-in-law's home near Seaforth. Police believe he intended to harm her in retaliation for his wife leaving him.
Pham and Mercy went to the home in separate vehicles, but when they arrived Preston had left, the report says.
Pham pulled over Preston's pickup a short time later and called in his location to Mercy before exiting his cruiser.
As Mercy arrived, he saw Pham leave his cruiser and the suspect emerge from his pickup with a rifle.
Mercy saw Pham reach for his weapon and fire one shot just before he was hit in the head by a bullet from Preston's rifle.
With Pham laying on the side of the road, the suspect fired two shots at Mercy as he was reversing his cruiser and calling for backup.
In the ensuing gun battle, Preston was shot six times, but was still conscious when other officers arrived to arrest him.
Preston died three days later in hospital and Pham died a few hours after the shooting.
With files from AM980
