Three Peel Regional Police officers who fired their guns during a wild encounter on Queen Frederica Drive in Mississauga earlier this year, killing an armed man and accidentally shooting a Humber College student, will not face criminal charges.

The province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which probes all incidents involving police that end in death or serious injury, announced this evening the March 20 incident in which a 22-year-old man identified as Marc Ekamba-Boekwa, was shot dead, two officers were wounded and Suzan Zreik was hit by a stray bullet while in her kitchen, was "legally justified" as police were dealing with a man armed with a knife who was closing in on them as they restrained his mother. Ekamba-Boekwa was hit with 11 bullets, the SIU ruled.

Michael Moon, lawyer for the Zreik family, called the ruling "completely disgusting" in an interview early Thursday.

Police responded to the townhouse complex in the area of Dixie Road and Dundas Street around 10 p.m. to investigate allegations from a woman that a female neighbour called her "a witch," threatened her with death, and threw a knife at her.

They viewed a surveillance video of the earlier incident and attempted to arrest the female neighbour and the neighbour's 22-year-old son, having determined there were grounds to arrest both.

When officers arrived at the door of the home, they were confronted by Ekamba-Boekwa who was in possession of a kitchen knife with a six inch blade.

The man resisted arrest and a struggle ensued, with police and the man ending up on the ground as they tripped over metal piping that surrounded the yard. Two officers were wounded with the knife during the scuffle.

As this was happening, the man's mother, identified as Boketsu Boekwa, 50, came out of the house and struck one of the police officers on the back of the head with a metal pot. In the moments after the officer was struck, Ekamba-Boekwa was able to slip free and flee the scene. As officers restrained his mother, her son returned – knife in his right hand – and screamed at the officers to release his mother.

Officers drew their firearms and ordered the man to stop. When he did not stop, three officers fired their weapons. A total of 19 bullets were fired and Ekamba-Boekwa was struck 11 times. The pathologist confirmed multiple gunshot wounds as the cause of his death.

"…as the man continued to close the distance between him and the officers, he clearly did so with an unlawful and dangerous purpose. He was armed with a knife and clearly intending to do harm with it," SIU director Tony Loparco said. "In fact, he had already used the knife to inflict injury on two officers, each of whom had been cut during the initial skirmish on the ground."

The SIU ruled there was "no real opportunity" for the officers to retreat.

"In view of the totality of this evidence, I am satisfied that the officers' apprehensions of the nature of the threat and their need to take action, when they did and as they did, were reasonable within the terms of section 34 of the Criminal Code and that the shooting, therefore, was legally justified," Loparco said.

Zreik was cutting a lime in her Queen Frederica Drive townhouse when she was hit in the back by a bullet, which needed to be surgically removed. Another Peel officer who responded was suffered a serious bruise to the back after being struck by one of the rounds fired by another officer. Thankfully, he was wearing a bullet-proof vest.

"Having determined that there are no grounds to charge one or more of the officers in connection with the man's death because the shooting was legally justified…I am bound to conclude that there are no grounds to charge the officers with criminal offences in relation to the injuries suffered by the two others who were wounded," Loparco added. "They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time through no criminal fault of anyone else."

Moon questioned the SIU's decision, saying "Ms. Zreik wasn't in the wrong place, she was in her house."

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The SIU assigned seven investigators and three forensic investigators to probe the shooting. The investigation included interviews with 18 civilian witnesses and nine police witnesses, as well as a video recording from one witness, forensic evidence gathered from the scene and the post-mortem. The subject officers declined to be interviewed and declined to provide copies of their notes, as was their legal right.

Boketsu Boekwa has been charged with two counts of conspiring to commit murder on a police officer and neighbour, assault with a weapon and uttering threats. Her case remains before the courts.