There are “no reasonable grounds” to charge the two OPP officers involved in the firing of an Anti-riot Weapon Enfield (ARWEN) toward a man in a boat in Georgian Bay.
The incident happened on May 28 when officials with the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) explain the two officers approached a man in his boat to “apprehend him under section 17 of the Mental Health Act.” The officers were told by the man’s wife that he was “in crisis” and had multiple firearms with him.
As officers got close to the man’s boat in a police vessel, they attempted to negotiate with him to surrender and raise his hands. SIU officials say he refused and grabbed his rifle. Both officers, they say, fired their “less lethal weapons” and were able to arrest the man.
Officials say no rounds hit him and he wasn’t injured.
Joseph Martino, Director of the SIU, says there are “no reasonable grounds to believe that either officer comported himself unlawfully in firing their ARWENs at the man, leaving no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.”