Three police officers in Canada have been charged with manslaughter in the death of an 18-month-old boy, nearly two years after he was killed by police gunfire.
Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, announced the charges on Wednesday afternoon.
Three constables with the Ontario provincial police – Nathan Vanderheyden, Kenneth Pengelly and Grason Cappus – have each been charged with one count of manslaughter and one count of criminal negligence causing death in relation to the death of Jameson Shapiro.
The officers, from the community of Kawartha Lakes in Ontario, were called in November 2020, to a domestic dispute involving a gun and the suspected abduction of the one-year-old by his father.
After police attempted to stop the father’s pickup truck it collided with a police car and another vehicle.
Three officers then fired their guns towards the vehicle, according to the SIU. Jameson Shapiro, who was sitting in the back of the pickup truck, was hit by a bullet and pronounced dead at the scene. The father died of gunshot wounds one week later.
The watchdog agency had previously faced sharp criticism for delays in its investigation of the officers. Months after Shapiro’s death, none of the police officers involved in the shooting had spoken with investigators.
On Wednesday the agency said it had “reasonable grounds” to conclude police gunfire killed the father and his child. The agency used FBI experts in its investigation.
The officers are due to appear in court on 6 October in the Ontario city of Lindsay.
