Peel police board to discuss $21M lawsuit from woman struck by stray bullet

The Peel Police Services Board has called a meeting this week to deal with the $21 million lawsuit facing Chief Jennifer Evans, the board, and other officers involved in the 2015 shooting that left a Mississauga woman with a bullet lodged near her spine. 

• Peel police Chief Jennifer Evans named in $21M lawsuit alleging she interfered in shooting probe

"The Board takes the lawsuit very seriously. As a result, we have made the decision to meet later this week, as a Board and along with Board counsel, to discuss the suit, learn more about what the suit means for the Board and where we go from here," said Peel Police Services Board Chair Amrik Singh Ahluwalia in a statement.

"As it will be an in camera meeting, I cannot comment further about what will be specifically discussed at the Board meeting."

Lawsuit alleges chief interfered in shooting probe

Suzan Zreik, the 23-year-old woman behind the lawsuit, had been hit in the back by a stray police bullet. She alleges Evans came to her hospital bed and promised to pave the way for her career in law enforcement. 

At the time of the shooting, she was a second-year college student in police foundations and had been standing in her family's kitchen when a bullet pierced her family's window. 

Police had been responding to a call at a neighbour's home when they started shooting.

Zreik's statement of claim also alleges officers denied her timely access to medical care, kept her parents from seeing her in hospital, and tried to coerce her into clearing Peel Regional Police officers of any wrongdoing. 

'These allegations are without merit'

"These allegations are without merit and we will defend the matter vigorously in court," said Evans in a statement.

"We are restricted from discussing the evidence which makes it difficult to get an accurate picture of what occurred."

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit  — which investigates all cases of death or serious injury involving police — cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Marc Ekamba-Boekwa and in their injury of Zreik.