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No charges were made for the death of Ejaz Choudry, 62, who was shot dead by police in the crisis
The Ontario Police Guard has ruled there will be no criminal charges against the police if a 62-year-old father of four was shot dead by an officer last summer after his family called an emergency number for help in the crisis receive . In a decision released Tuesday, Joseph Martino, director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), concluded that the Peel Regional Police officer who fired two bullets into Ejaz Choudry’s chest was acting sensibly when he dated June 20 Balcony of locked apartment in Chaugry, Mississauga, Ontario, from the fire opened in 2020. Choudry, the report says, was armed with an eight-inch kitchen knife when police kicked his balcony door and yelled at him in English – a language that his family said they did not understand properly – to drop his weapon. The officer in charge was concerned that Choudry, who had schizophrenia and was not taking his medication, was at risk of harming himself, Martino said. A statement sent by their attorneys to CBC News on behalf of the Choudry family said the family was “deeply disappointed” but not surprised by the SIU’s decision. “Ejaz did not commit a crime. He did not deserve any of it,” said the statement, which noted that police claimed they had to intervene for Choudry’s safety but killed him within seconds of entering the apartment. CLOCK | Ejaz Choudry’s family responds to news that no officers will be charged if he dies: the statement says that police, who have been on site for about three hours, have entered the unit against the will of the family and are asking why Family members were prevented from speaking to Choudry before the police stepped in. “If there is no reasonable cause to prosecute this case, when will the SIU ever take action against a police murder?” Officer Refused to Speak to SIU Two of the three officers on the balcony who spoke to investigators alleged Choudry approached them with a knife in hand after the balcony was breached – a claim Martino claims that they are the only direct source of evidence. After a stun gun and plastic bullets failed to defeat Choudry, the third officer opened fire (the SIU did not name the officer). The officer who shot Choudry refused to speak to the SIU or give his notes, as permitted under the Ontario Police Services Act. All that is known about his perspective are the words another official reportedly heard from him immediately after the shooting. The report said, “I had to do it. I had no choice.” “Police officers have an obligation to protect life, which extends to the general public and not just to victims of crime,” says Martino in his decision. “The law makes it clear that police officers are not required to accurately or accurately measure the force they use.” As such, I believe [the officer’s] The use of his weapon was objectively reasonable, necessary and proportionate to the threat posed by Mr Choudry, regardless of the tragic death it caused. “The Ontario SIU is investigating all police officers seriously injured or killed, as well as sexual assault allegations.” He thought the police were going to shoot him. ” For a brief moment during the roughly three-hour encounter, there had been a glimmer of hope. Choudry’s daughter and another family member spoke to him from the hallway outside the apartment and asked him to come out of his house and hand his knife to the police. “He said “He wouldn’t come out because he thought the police would shoot him,” the report said. Within a few hours, at 8:38 p.m., he was dead. The ladders used by the police are on June 20, 2020 on the balcony of Choudry and his family’s home in Mississauga. (SIU) Choudry, who had been hospitalized for psychiatric care, decided to leave the hospital that day for medical advice asked for medical help for her father, who looked confused and allegedly had a penknife The paramedics arrived at the apartment first, followed by the police i trying to speak to choudry through the apartment door. Choudry told the officers to go. Instead, his daughter entered the unit and stayed behind two officers. Inside, they found Choudry sitting on a prayer mat in a bedroom and asked for his knife. His daughter translated her words into Punjabi, and according to the report, he revealed a large kitchen knife under the mat that “pointed to the officers.” Again he asked her to go. Attempts to communicate with Choudry continued from the hallway outside the apartment, but Choudry refused to leave, saying he was afraid of the police. Choudry ‘hard to understand’: report Around 6 p.m., tactical officers took control of the scene and asked the family to go downstairs and not communicate with Choudry. Officers stayed at the door trying to “reassure” Choudry that paramedics were there to help – but the report suggests that communication was “difficult” and that he only occasionally responded in English. A Punjabi-speaking police officer eventually arrived around 6.45pm along with more tactical police officers. Choudry also did not warm to the Punjabi speaking officer, but “acknowledged that he had no intention of harming himself” before beginning to pray aloud. He also reportedly warned the police not to come back inside and “see what happens” if they did. Choudry was reportedly holding this 8-inch kitchen knife when a Peel police officer opened fire on him from the balcony of his apartment last June. (SIU) In the meantime, the police officer in charge began to create a “deliberate plan of action” that would see one The tactical team entered the apartment through the balcony, while another one entered through the front door five seconds later. It was 7.42 p.m. before a crisis negotiation team was called – and they were still an hour away. Shortly before 8 p.m., the report said, Choudry stopped communicating and there was no sound from the apartment. After about 20 minutes of no communication, the officer in charge decided to carry out the action plan. A video posted on social media after Choudry’s death captured what happened next. CLOCK | Tactical officers break through the door of Ejaz Choudry’s balcony in June 2020: Officers on the balcony kicked the door and repeatedly shouted: “Put the knife away.” Seconds later, shots can be heard. An autopsy revealed that Choudry died of gunshot wounds to the chest. No deviation from what a “reasonable person” would do: SIU After his shooting, the report says, Choudry fell backwards to the ground with the knife still in hand. The officers again ordered him to drop the knife, the report said, with an officer firing rubber bullets at him when he appeared not to be sticking to it. Another then kicked his arm, “causing the knife to fall to the ground.” Instead of helping him and preventing him from killing himself, do you go in and kill him? – Hassan Choudhary Choudry’s family said he was a frail man who had diabetes, had a history of heart problems and recently had lung surgery. According to the report, the officer in charge was advised, “Choudry can hardly walk or breathe.” “Given these concerns and the inability to get a picture of Mr. Choudry, [the officer in charge] was in a position where he had to weigh the risk of not acting if Mr Choudry was in medical distress, “writes Martino, arguing that he does not accept that Choudry could not have approached officers on a series of events with devastating consequences train “, he writes, the move was not a clear” deviation from what a sensible person would do with the same decisions. “As for the mobile crisis unit of the Peel Police, consisting of a police officer and Martino writes that they” at another incident “were busy. Separately, the officer in charge of the SIU announced that the mobile crisis team would not have been deployed in this case because a knife was involved – an issue that has also surfaced in other fatal interactions with the police recently, including that of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto. Former Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders previously told reporters about the case, “There’s no waiting. I would get a nurse into a knife fight.” “We know more needs to be done,” said the police chief. Another Case in a series of deadly police encounters involving people in the crisis, including those of Korchinski-Paquet, D’Andre Campbell and Clive Mensah, the report confirms that “there were concerns that the police presence was escalating these situations and “In Mr. Choudry’s case, his paranoia of the police played a significant role in his death, and these concerns are clearly valid,” Martino writes. Nonetheless, he says, “While questions about police reform are clearly important, systemic problems can be only play a role in the decision-making of the SIU in policing if they are responsible for the potential stra criminal negligence of an individual police officer are relevant. “Ultimately, he concludes:” For the reasons given above, I am not satisfied that the shooting of Mr Choudry constituted unjustified violence or was the culmination of criminally negligent conduct. “Hashim Choudhary , Choudry’s nephew, speaks to reporters in front of the house where the fatal shots had been fired the night before. (Galit Rodan / The Canadian Press) Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah made a statement following the decision to offer condolences to the family. “The pain and grief in the community and in our organization has been profound,” he said. “We recognize that more needs to be done to support those affected by the crisis and that the police should not be the primary helpers asked to deal with mental health calls.” He admitted that “there are still gaps” and said the force was working on expanding its program for mobile crisis teams. But for Choudry’s family, who raised hopes of accountability when he died, the news of the decision only raises more questions – questions they will now have to wait for a coroner’s request to be answered. “This is an elderly man in his own house. He poses no threat to anyone – anyone. And instead of providing security and assistance, it took eight seconds to simply shoot and kill him,” said nephew Hassan Choudhary to CBC News. “Regardless of race, regardless of mental or physical condition, we should treat one another as human beings … and we feel that as a Canadian citizen he did not receive that right.” He was not treated as human. “
