The province’s police watchdog cleared a Toronto police officer who fired at a suspect during an attempted arrest in 2018.

At about 11 p.m. on Nov. 21, police approached a suspect in his Honda Accord at an apartment building at Willowridge Road near Martin Grove Road and Eglinton Avenue West.

He was tracked by a number of Toronto police officers who were intent on searching his vehicle for a firearm, the Special Investigations Unit said in a report released Wednesday.

Police approached the suspect’s car with their guns drawn and there was an exchange of gunfire. One officer fired 28 times “within seconds,” according to the SIU report.

The 23-year-old suspect suffered non life-threatening injuries, with “multiple lacerations and injuries to his face and both hands.” He escaped his car and travelled a short distance before being arrested by other officers.

“I am unable to place any weight on the suggestion that the complainant was shot multiple times without any provocation on his part given the evidence that a Ruger, found in his vehicle, was in fact discharged four times from within the vehicle in the direction of the officers,” interim SIU director Joseph Martino said in a statement Wednesday.

Martino also addressed whether firing 28 shots was excessive.

“While the number of bullets fired in the direction of the complainant undoubtedly constituted a significant level of lethal force, they would have occurred over a span of seconds, during which time, the evidence indicates, the complainant fired at least one additional shot beyond his initial volley,” Martino said.

“Moreover, though the complainant was injured as the result of the officer’s gunfire, the fact he was able to reverse his vehicle and then exit from it after it was over indicates he was not incapacitated by the (officer’s) discharges; that is to say, he remained a legitimate danger as long as he had access to the firearm.”

Martino concluded that the shooting was legally justified.

There was a “reasonable belief that doing so was necessary to protect himself and his colleagues from a lethal threat,” Martino said. “Consequently, there are no grounds to proceed with charges in this case.”

The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

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Margaryta Ignatenko is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @MargarytaIgnat1

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