All criminal charges have been dropped against three Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers who were accused in a deadly police shooting that killed a father and toddler in Kawartha Lakes, Ont.
The incident happened on Nov. 26, 2020, when a child abduction was reported to police, later ending with the fatal shooting of both 18-month-old Jameson Shapiro and his 33-year-old father William Shapiro. Jameson was found dead at the scene, while his father was taken to hospital and died on Dec. 2. The shooting also left an OPP officer seriously injured.
Three OPP constables — Nathan Vanderheyden, Kenneth Pengelly and Grayson Cappus — had been charged with one count each of manslaughter, reckless discharge of a firearm with intent and aggravated assault, in relation to the boy’s death.
The Crown withdrew those charges in an Oshawa court on Monday.
The three officers were initially each charged with one count of criminal negligence causing death, but that charge was dropped as it was found redundant, Crown attorney Ian Bulmer said Monday.
Bulmer said the Crown had no evidence to disprove the officers’ version of events.
He added that while the evidence gathered establishes that Jameson Shapiro died as a result of at least one police-fired bullet, his death was a “tragic, unintended consequence of [shots] fired by the defendants in a genuine situation of self defence.”
More to come.
