Officers who killed man during Anoka Street stabbings won't be charged
CBC News | Posted: October 26, 2022 12:52 PM | Last Updated: October 26, 2022
Police used reasonable force when shooting man who stabbed 3 women in June, says SIU
Ontario's police watchdog is not recommending criminal charges against Ottawa police officers who shot and killed a man attacking a family outside their home this past summer.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was looking into the death of 21-year-old Joshua Graves on Anoka Street in Ottawa's central Alta Vista neighbourhood June 27.
He fatally stabbed 50-year-old Anne-Marie Ready and her 15-year-old daughter Jasmine Ready, and was stabbing 19-year-old Catherine Ready when police arrived, according to the SIU at the time.
Three officers opened fire on Graves after he refused to drop his knife, killing him, the SIU said. Catherine Ready was hit as well and survived.
Graves had been arrested, charged and then released on bail for sexually assaulting and stalking another 16-year-old girl just three days before his deadly rampage.
The Ready family later made connections to previous troubling encounters with Graves. The killings became part of a push to include the term "femicide" in the Criminal Code of Canada.
'A difficult choice' for 1st officer
In a report dated Tuesday and included in a news released issued Wednesday, the SIU said the use of force by the three officers under investigation was reasonable to protect the woman being stabbed.
Catherine Ready already filled in many details of the night of the attack in an interview with CBC, saying Graves — the son of a neighbour — knocked on their door asking to talk to her mother before pulling a knife while in their living room.
The SIU detailed what happened from the police perspective after the first 911 call.
The first officer to shoot Graves may have been the first officer on scene, the SIU said. As he parked his vehicle, he saw Graves run at Catherine Ready and slash her with a black tactical knife.
When Graves didn't stop as told, the officer shot him multiple times and knocked him onto his back. This was the officer who shot Catherine in the leg and fractured it, according to the report.
The two other officers arrived seconds later, drew their guns, and ordered Graves to drop his knife. The SIU said he sat up and swung the knife at the officers, so these two officers fired multiple shots at him as the earlier officer dragged the surviving Ready away.
Graves was killed by multiple gunshots to the chest, according to an autopsy.
"[That first officer] had a difficult choice to make and only a split second in which to make it: shoot [Graves] to stop the assault but risk hitting [Catherine Ready] in the process, or, not shoot and risk [Graves] continuing to inflict bodily harm and even death on [her]. It appears the officer made the right decision," the report said.
It goes on to say Graves was still a threat when the second and third officers fired.
In retrospect they could have fell back and sought cover, the investigator said, but "the situation was incredibly dynamic and I am unable to conclude that the officers acted precipitously," or inconsiderately, by using lethal force.
The unit said it's possible the three officers fired 14 shots from their pistols. As is their right, none of the officers agreed to an interview with the SIU, while two of the three shared their notes
The SIU is an independent body that investigates when police are involved in a death, serious injury, firearm being discharged at someone, or allegation of sexual assault, and decides whether the officers may have committed a criminal offence.