Toddler Killed When Father Allegedly Clashes With Police

But what happened in Ontario, Canada isn't quite clear
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 28, 2020 11:51 AM CST
Police Opened Fire—but a Toddler Was in the Way
A screen capture from video of the shooting location in Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada.   (YouTube/Peterborough Scanner Feed)

A possible kidnapping turned tragic in Canada when a one-year-old child died in an encounter with police, the Guardian reports. Details remain sketchy, but officers fired on a pickup truck Thursday with the boy and his father inside. "It's too early for us to know why officers fired at the vehicle, and it's too early for us to know exactly what transpired," a rep for Ontario's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, told the press. Police say officers in the Kawartha Lakes community responded to a domestic clash that involved a firearm and a father allegedly abducting his one-year-old son. A resident told Global News that "some people came to the house and wanted in, for a safe haven, and there was something about the husband had left with the little baby."

Police spotted the dad's pickup on a country road, tried to stop him, and the truck apparently smashed into a cop car and another vehicle, injuring an officer who stood nearby. The Special Investigations Unit said three officers then opened fire. "Inside the pickup truck was a one-year-old boy," per the SIU. "He had sustained a gunshot wound and was pronounced deceased at the scene." The father, 33, was hospitalized in "grave condition." But the Toronto Star reports that a fourth handgun was found in the truck, making it unclear whose gun killed the boy. "I ask that [officials] be given time to investigate, without speculation on the events as they unfolded," tweeted the Ontario police commissioner. "Our thoughts & prayers are with those that are suffering today." (More police shooting stories.)

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