MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -
The province's Special Investigations Unit has cleared two Barrie, Ont., police officers in the shooting death of a 48-year-old man, who stabbed both officers in the throat.
The SIU says on July 5, the officers approached Dennis Albert Melton, of Barrie, who had been acting erratically, not knowing he had a knife.
He stabbed one of the officers in the throat and when the other officer intervened, he too was stabbed in the throat.
One officer shot Melton once and the other fired several times, before Melton started walking away still armed with the knife.
The man ignored several warnings to drop the knife before one of the officers fired several more shots.
Melton was pronounced dead at hospital, while both officers underwent emergency surgery for their life-threatening injuries, and continue to recover.
The SIU, a civilian agency that investigates cases of serious injuries and deaths involving the police, says the officer's actions were justified.
