The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has cleared a Peel Regional Police officer who shot and killed 15-year-old Ozama Shaw in a Mississauga plaza last year, saying the incident appeared on its face to be a case of “shoot or be shot.”

At about 1:25 a.m. on July 27, 2017, police were called to the Credit Valley Town Plaza at Brittania and Creditview roads after a male, believed to be Shaw, entered a Petro-Canada gas station and pointed a black handgun at the man behind the counter.

According to the SIU report into the incident, the attendant placed some cash from the register on the counter, but then two other males came into the store and pulled Shaw away.

The two males then got in a stolen Audi sedan and sped off, the report said.

The SIU later found that Shaw had arrived at the plaza in the Audi and was now effectively stranded.

Shaw then made his way to a nearby Pizza Pizza restaurant and allegedly pointed a handgun in an employee’s face.

“The employee grabbed at the handgun, but the complainant (Shaw) retained it and fled from the restaurant,” the SIU report states.

Shaw then made his way to a car where Janet Wade-Hunt was sitting inside, completing some paper work and listening to the radio.

She told CP24 at the time that a male, now believed to be Shaw, opened her passenger-side door, holding the black handgun.

She explained that she motioned to the nearby Pizza Pizza and said her boyfriend was inside. She said Shaw then uttered an expletive, slammed the car door shut and walked away after she told him to leave for a second time.

“I couldn’t wait for him to make the first move even though he had a gun. I didn’t want to be a victim,” Janet Wade-Hunt told CP24 at the time. “I didn’t have a gun so I realized I had to use my mouth as a weapon and demand what I wanted him to do.”

She then called 911 and said she saw the male approach a parked SUV and tap the handle of the gun against its windshield. The driver of that SUV sped away from the scene, the SIU said.

Shaw was then seen by police and witnesses heading to the front doors of a BMO branch at another part of the plaza.

Police arrived and surrounded the bank. Wade-Hunt, still at the scene, was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher at the time.

“Shoot him in the leg,” she said. “He could have killed me but he didn’t. Jesus I thank you. Oh my God.”

The SIU said an officer who was part of the cordon around the bank drew his Colt C8 carbine, a semi-automatic assault rifle, and took cover behind his cruiser. Shaw remained at a door bythe front vestibule of the bank.

“He then ‘racked’ his rifle, putting a round in the chamber, while he had it pointed downwards,” the SIU wrote in its report.

The officer with the rifle told the SIU that he yelled repeatedly at Shaw for him to put his gun down.

Shaw was then observed raising his right arm and pointing the handgun into the distance at a 90 degree angle.

Another officer present at the scene told the SIU that at one point Shaw was pointing the handgun right at him.

“(Witness officer) advised that he was unable to conceal himself at that time and he feared for his safety and backed up to his cruiser,” the SIU wrote.

At that point, everyone present heard either one or two gunshots and Shaw fell to the ground.

Officers kicked the handgun away from his body and found him to still be moving. Shaw was struck in the torso.

He was rushed to hospital where doctors performed “numerous” surgeries to try and save him. His wound became infected and Shaw died in hospital on Aug. 26, 2017.

His cause of death was found to be complications from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

At least two witnesses told police and the SIU that they could not say for certain whether the gun Shaw was pointing at them was real or fake.

The SIU seized the gun and found it to be a pellet gun firing 4.5 millimetre lead pellets. It was made to look like a Heckler and Koch .45 calibre pistol.

Though dangerous if loaded, at the time Shaw was brandishing it, it was missing a carbon dioxide canister in its handle required to allow it to fire.

SIU forensic investigators found evidence that the Peel officer fired his rifle twice.

One bullet struck Shaw while another struck a portion of stucco above the door the bank.

Ten officers present at the incident turned over their notes to the SIU, including the officer that fired his rifle at Shaw.

SIU Director Tony Loparco found that the subject officer was justified in his use of force.

“I find in all the circumstances that the subject officer reasonably believed that his life and those of his fellow officers and any civilians in the area, was in danger from (Shaw) and the (Subject Officer’s) actions in firing upon the complainant was justified.”

Loparco said it would have been “foolish and reckless” for the subject officer to have waited longer to see if Shaw fired his weapon or if the weapon could indeed fire.

Shaw was a grade 10 student enrolled at John Cabot Catholic Secondary School at the time of his death. He lived in an apartment complex with his family, not far from where the incident occurred.

Loparco said Shaw’s death was “tragic” given his age, but also pointed out nobody involved properly determined his age by looking at him.

Witnesses that night described Shaw as being anywhere from 18 to 30 years of age.

“I accept that it would not have been obvious to anyone facing (Shaw) that he was not a grown man, but rather that he was a youth,” Loparco wrote. “When faced with the decision whether to shoot or be shot, I am less than confident that the complainant’s age would have necessarily played a key role in making that decision.”