It is highly unusual for a police officer to be charged with attempted murder and even more rare for the alleged victim to be a fellow police officer, experts say, after a Niagara Regional Police officer was charged this week in the shooting of another on-duty officer during an apparent altercation.

The province’s Special Investigations Unit said Thursday that it has “reasonable grounds” to believe Det.-Sgt. Shane Donovan committed criminal offences when a 52-year-old police officer was shot in Pelham. The St. Catharines Standard has previously identified the wounded officer as Const. Nathan Parker.

It is the second time the SIU has charged a police officer with attempted murder — a charge that is rarely laid and requires a specific intent to kill.

“To the best of my knowledge, this is an exceptionally rare case,” said University of Guelph professor Kate Puddister who researches police oversight. “Not only is it quite uncommon for the SIU to charge an officer with homicide or attempted homicide, I can’t recall ever coming across a case where the complainant was another on-duty police officer.”

Puddister says there is not much research available about violent incidents between police officers in Canada, though some research from the U.S. examines the rare shootings of off-duty police officers.

The SIU has investigated previous instances where a police officer was injured as a result of another police officer, said SIU spokesperson Jasbir Dhillon.

Former SIU director Ian Scott said he cannot recall the SIU charging an officer with a non-sexual violent offence where the complainant was a police officer. The SIU only investigates incidents of serious injury, death or sexual assault involving police in Ontario. Police forces conduct investigations into cases that don’t meet that standard and where off-duty police officers are alleged to have committed offences against other officers.

In a 2015 case the Toronto Police Professional Standards Unit charged three officers with sexually assaulting a parking enforcement officer. They were acquitted after a trial.

On the rare occasions police officers are charged with serious offences including murder, attempted murder and manslaughter the complainants are typically civilians, Scott said. Cases involving shootings are also extremely rare — though under their current mandate the SIU does not investigate every discharge of a firearm.

Waterloo Police Sgt. Richard Dorling was charged with attempted murder and other charges by the SIU — after a man was shot in March 2018.

Ottawa Police Service Const. Daniel Montsion is currently on trial for manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in the 2016 death of Ottawa resident Abdirahman Abdi.

Now former police officer James Forcillo is serving a six-year sentence after being convicted of attempted murder for shooting Sammy Yatim on a streetcar in 2013. While the SIU charged Forcillo with second-degree murder, it was the Crown who opted to add the charge of attempted murder.

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An investigation by the SIU into the Nov. 29, 2018 shooting found Niagara Region Police officers were in the area of Effingham St. and Roland Rd. to investigate a collision that happened days earlier. Two of the police officers became involved in an altercation at about noon and one of the officers discharged his firearm multiple times.

The second officer was struck and suffered serious injuries.

Det. Sgt. Shane Donovan has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

He will appear in court on April 18.

Donovan headed up the force’s collision reconstruction unit at the time of the incident. Members were in Pelham investigating an alleged impaired driving collision that had happened Nov. 12 in which a driver failed to negotiate a curb, entered a ditch and struck a tree. The vehicle burst into flames and was destroyed.

Parker is a constable with 28 years of service with the NRP and at the time of the shooting was assigned to uniform patrol in Welland and Pelham. He had made news in the past as the subject of four disciplinary hearings, three of which involved violence against civilians.

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Parker was treated at the Pelham scene and transported to an area hospital before being moved by air ambulance to Hamilton in critical condition.

It remains unclear what his current condition is.

With files from Karena Walter, The St. Catharines Standard

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