Shootout likely happened at Hamilton Cemetery before police killed suspect in GTA-area gun deaths, SIU says
Bobby Hristova | CBC News | Posted: September 15, 2022 8:36 PM | Last Updated: September 15, 2022
The Special Investigations Unit says 2 Hamilton officers and 2 Halton officers fired shots
Ontario's police watchdog says there was likely a shootout in the Hamilton Cemetery before police killed the 40-year-old suspect in Monday's gunfire in the Greater Toronto Area that left an officer and another man dead.
A Special Investigations Unit (SIU) media release Thursday doesn't say what has led its investigators to believe there was a shootout between police and the man.
The investigation is ongoing.
The SIU is called in whenever someone is killed or injured in a confrontation with police or there are allegations of sexual assault against officers.
Thursday's update comes after Chief Steve Tanner of the Halton Regional Police Service told reporters a 28-year-old international student injured in Monday's shootings is not expected to survive.
The student was working at an auto-body shop in Milton when he was shot, police said.
Shakeel Ashraf, the body shop's 38-year-old owner, also died. Toronto police Const. Andrew Hong, 48, died about half an hour earlier in Mississauga.
Two other people were also shot over the course of the afternoon and sustained various degrees of injuries.
The suspect, identified as Shawn Petrie, headed toward Hamilton before dying in the cemetery.
The SIU says four officers — two from Hamilton and two from Halton — fired shots in the cemetery.
As well, seven Hamilton officers and 10 Halton officers saw what happened, according to the police watchdog.
The SIU said seven of its investigators and two forensic investigators are on the case, and Petrie's post-mortem examination continued Thursday.