The Special Investigations Unit will not be laying charges after a Niagara Regional Police officer shot a man in Smithville just before Christmas.
On December 21st a woman called 911, telling the operator her boyfriend was tied up in the basement of their Anastasia Boulevard home.
She described the suspect as a man who had sexually abused her boyfriend's teenage daughter and had been released from jail earlier that year.
When officers arrived, a 46 year old man began walking toward a pickup truck and a struggle with officers ensued.
According to the SIU report the man pulled out a gun before being shot multiple times by an officer.
The man was taken to hospital with three gunshot wounds.
It turns out, the weapon pulled by the suspect was a starter pistol, but the director of the SIU points out the officers had no way of knowing that and they had every reason to believe their lives were in danger.
Two people from inside the home were taken to hospital for treatment and later released.
As part of the previous police investigation into the incident, Alexander Jason Bates was charged with two counts of attempted murder, uttering a death threat, and using an imitation firearm in the commission of an offence.