The provincial police watchdog has cleared a Toronto officer of any wrongdoing after an investigation into an incident where a man was shot in the drive-thru of a Tim Hortons in northwest Toronto.

The incident happened in the early-morning hours of Oct. 26, 2019. According to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), a man called 911 to report a road-rage incident where a driver had gotten out of his car and approached him holding a gun.

Police later found the driver who was the subject of the call sitting in a white car at a Tim Hortons located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Jane Street and Falstaff Avenue.

According to the SIU, a forensic examination after the incident revealed the car already had bullet holes in it from a firearms call that happened that July.

"The previous bullet holes were covered using electrical tape and painted with white paint," the SIU report reads.

According to security camera footage, at 3:52 a.m., a police vehicle can be seen arriving at the parking lot and stopping parallel to the Infinity. Two cops then approached the passenger side door of the car with their guns drawn, the SIU says.

The officer at the centre of the investigation then yelled "Police!" and "Stop, show me your hands," according to the report, before directing the man to get out of his car.

Investigators say they found a gun in the car. (Special Investigations Unit)

The officer then saw the man briefly raise his hands and say "Don't shoot me," the SIU says, before he moved his right hand toward his lap and pulled a gun.

The SIU says the officer, fearing for his life, the safety of his partner and the people at the Tim Hortons, immediately started shooting. The driver then put his car in drive and started to move forward, before colliding with a cement post.

In the end, eight new bullet holes were found in the car, which was consistent with the number of times the officer fired his gun, the SIU says.

This is the trajectory examination of four bullet holes that were located on the passenger-side area of the vehicle. (Special Investigations Unit)

Investigators later found a .40-calibre Smith & Wesson pistol on the floor of the driver's side of the car, loaded with one cartridge in the breech and 10 in the magazine, according to the SIU report.

At the time, the 29-year-old man was taken to hospital in serious, but non-life-threatening condition with injuries to his leg and shoulder.

The SIU report also describes "contradicting" evidence that was collected, which suggested the officer approached the man's car and pointed a gun at him.

"At that very moment, the drive-thru attendant directed the complainant through the speaker at the menu board, to drive forward, as a result of which he did," the report reads.

"There was a gunshot and the complainant immediately stopped his vehicle. He had been struck by a bullet. This evidence also indicates the complainant did not have a firearm with him at the time of this incident."

The man was taken to hospital after the shooting. (Jeremy Cohn/CBC)

SIU Director Joseph Martino called this account "implausible," and not backed up by the evidence. The SIU did not immediately respond to a question about who provided this evidence.

"It is ... dubious that the complainant would drive forward because he was directed to do so by the Tim Hortons' employee, despite a fully uniformed police officer pointing a firearm at him and yelling at him to get out of the car," Martino wrote in his decision.

Martino said no charges would be laid.

"I accept that the [officer], when faced with a man holding a firearm raised in his direction, genuinely and reasonably believed that shooting the complainant was necessary to protect both himself, and those around him, from loss of life or grievous bodily harm."

adam.carter@cbc.ca