One-year-old boy killed when police opened fire on his father's pickup truck after a child abduction was reported
A one-year-old boy has been fatally shot in Canada after police investigated an abduction report in Ontario opened fire on a pickup truck driven by his father.
Ontario's Special Investigations Unit has said it is too early to tell what exactly transpired during the incident and cannot confirm if it was indeed the police who accidentally killed the infant.
However, National Post reported that SIU spokeswoman Monica Hudson said in an email that the boy died of a gunshot wound.
In Hudson's official statement, she confirmed that three of the officers fired their guns at the vehicle after an "interaction" between a 33-year-old vehicle driver and police officers. The driver was hit by a bullet and airlifted to a hospital.
Of the child, Hudson wrote: "Inside the pickup truck was a one-year-old boy. He had sustained a gunshot wound and was pronounced deceased at the scene."The incident occurred after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were alerted at around 8:46 am on November 26 that a father had been accused of abducting his son from the Municipality of Trent Lakes.
Police were dispatched and located the truck in the City of Kawartha Lakes. The shooting occurred after an attempt by the OPP to force the driver to stop ended in a collision between his truck, an OPP cruiser, and a civilian vehicle.
Hudson also reported an OPP officer outside of the vehicles was struck by the pickup and "sustained serious injuries. "The officer is in stable condition in hospital, while the father and driver of the vehicle is also still in hospital. A post-mortem has been scheduled for the one-year-old boy.
The OPP commissioner, Thomas Carrique, asked via Twitter that "@SIUOntario and @YRP be given time to investigate, without speculation on the events as they unfolded."
Carrique added: "Our thoughts & prayers are with those that are suffering today."
As a result of a tragic incident today, one child is dead and two others significantly injured. I ask that @SIUOntario and @YRP be given time to investigate, without speculation on the events as they unfolded. Our thoughts & prayers are with those that are suffering today. https://t.co/wIdB2mXWYr
— Thomas Carrique (@OPPCommissioner) November 26, 2020
An investigation into the incident has been ordered, with four investigators, two forensic investigators and one collision reconstructionist assigned to the case.
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