Ontario’s police oversight agency says an officer who fatally shot a man who had killed five people at a condominium building should not face criminal charges.
In a news release Monday, the Special Investigations Unit says director Joseph Martino has determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe the York Regional Police officer committed a criminal offence and the file has been closed.
The SIU says that when one of the first officers responded to the condo complex in Vaughan, Ont., on Dec. 18 for a report of an active shooter, he located the man in one of the building’s hallways.
The release says that when the man refused to drop his pistol and instead raised the hand holding the gun as if readying to point it at the officer, the officer discharged his weapon four times.
The man was struck, the release says, and despite officers administering first aid, he died at the scene.
Seventy-three-year-old Francesco Villi killed five people – three condo board members and two of their spouses – whose bodies were found on three different floors.