No criminal offence by officer who fired at suspect in Bourget: SIU

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The provincial police watchdog has found “no reasonable grounds” to believe an Ontario Provincial Police officer committed a criminal offence in connection with shots fired in the direction of a man in Bourget in May.

The report released late Friday afternoon by the Special Investigations Unit described the shooting as part of a series of events at a Bourget home where OPP Sgt. Eric Mueller was fatally shot.

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Another OPP officer, the subject of the SIU investigation, was seriously wounded, and a third officer was also struck by a bullet.

The 39-year-old man the OPP officer shot toward was not hit by gunfire, according to the report.

Alain Bellefeuille was later charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mueller as well as two counts of attempted murder.

Friday’s report included a summary of what happened that night, “clear on the evidence collected by the SIU.”

It said OPP officers were called to a residence on Laval Street in Bourget early on May 11 to check on the welfare of an individual listed as the complainant in the SIU investigation, responding to an emergency call from a civilian who expressed concern that the complainant might have shot himself.

The officer who was the subject of the SIU inquiry consulted with the civilian and then headed to the complainant’s house, joined by another officer on the front driveway at about 2:29 a.m. They walked around the residence, looking through windows and banging on the rear door in an attempt to attract his attention.

As they returned to the front of the house, the officers were joined by a third OPP officer, described as a witness by the SIU.

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The report says the “subject officer” and “Officer #1” opened the unlocked front door and entered a mudroom of the darkened house. The subject officer called out “Police!” and the complainant’s name a couple of times. There was no response.

With his firearm drawn, the subject officer walked into a living room and took six or seven steps towards an open door at the far side when, without warning, nine or 10 shots rang out within a span of only two or three seconds, according to the report.

The open door led into a bedroom, the SIU report added. The complainant was in that room, armed with a rifle, the report states, and had fired through the open door and bedroom walls toward the two officers in the house.

The report states the subject officer was struck by the gunfire, producing what it called “life-altering wounds.”

“Officer #1”, Mueller, was also struck multiple times, and he fell on his back inside the mudroom, it states.

The third OPP officer at the scene, described as the witness officer, then drew his gun and ran from the front porch to seek cover behind the police vehicles on the driveway.

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About 30 seconds after the barrage of gunfire from the complainant ended, the report said, the subject officer made it to his feet and ran out of the house through the mudroom, shooting two or three times in the direction of the bedroom as he did so.

That officer returned shortly to check on Mueller from the threshold of the front door into the mudroom. The complainant, still in possession of the rifle, was standing by the open bedroom door, and the subject officer had just turned away from the front door when the complainant walked through the bedroom door and fired two additional rounds through the wall and/or window lining the front deck, according to the report. One of those bullets ricocheted and struck the witness officer in the left knee, it said.

The SIU report said the Complainant proceeded into the living room and, from the threshold of the doorway leading into the mudroom, fired again through the open front door. About a minute and a half later, the complainant discharged four final rounds in rapid succession, it added.

The time was 2:35 a.m.

The complainant would shortly after that drop his weapon and surrender into police custody, the SIU summary said.

The complainant and the subject officer declined interviews with the SIU, the report said.

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