Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating after a police officer shot a teenage boy in North York on Sunday afternoon.
The incident happened shortly before 3 p.m. at a plaza in the Humber Summit neighbourhood, near Islington Avenue and Satterly Road, just south of Steeles Avenue West.
Speaking with reporters at the scene, Kristy Denette, of the SIU, said the victim is a 17-year-old boy.
She said that Toronto Police Service’s Gun and Gang Unit task force was conducting an ongoing investigation of a “car of interest” with several occupants inside on Islington Avenue prior to the shooting.
“There was the male in the vehicle and some other occupants, an interaction occurred, and a single gunshot was fired,” Denette said.
“The male was wounded and taken to hospital, where he remains in non-life-threatening condition.”
The SIU, which is called in to investigate when police are involved in an incident that results in death, serious injury, sexual assault, and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person, later elaborated in a news release that police officers attempted to arrest the male who was then shot once by one of them.
The other occupants of the vehicle were arrested, it added.
Toronto police say four male suspects are in custody, adding that one of them sustained a gunshot injury. Police have not elaborated on exactly why the suspects were arrested.
The injured person was transported to hospital via emergency run, police said.
Paramedics told CTV News Toronto that they transported a male patient to the hospital with a serious, but non-life-threatening, gunshot wound.
Denette went on to say that forensic investigators with the SIU along with other investigators are now processing the scene, taking photographs, working to identify witnesses, and gathering video footage from the area.
“There will be interviews that will be conducted in the coming days and that will give us more details into the circumstances of what happened,” she said, adding that Toronto police are also trying to obtain a warrant to enter the vehicle to obtain more evidence and better understand what happened.
Denette said the SIU does not know if the person shot was armed. The civilian agency is also unaware if any charges have or will be laid by the police, she said.
“The focus of the SIU investigation is any criminality involving the police officer who discharged her firearm and injured the individual,” said Denette.
Three investigators and three forensic investigators have been assigned to this investigation, which Denette said aims to be completed within 120 days.
The SIU is urging anyone with information about this investigation, including video or photos, to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529 or online.
