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“The question that this investigation had to answer was whether there was any act or omission by the police which amounted to criminal negligence in the circumstances leading to S/Sgt Ghadban’s death,” Loparco said. “The investigation determined that while the tactical unit was at Ottawa Police Headquarters at the time of S/Sgt Ghadban’s death, they did not have any direct interaction with him.”

The SIU said the tactical team was at the Elgin Street headquarters after providing security for the Canadian Police and Peace Officers’ National Memorial Service on Parliament Hill when it received word that Ghadban might be suicidal, and went looking for him.

Officers discovered that Ghadban’s service gun was not secured in his locker and went to the street crime unit, where one saw the door to Ghadban’s inner office closed while the outer office was unlocked.

The senior tactical officer began mobilizing the rest of the tactical team. Two officers were moving furniture around in the outer office when they heard a single shot. They rushed into Ghadban’s office and found him mortally wounded on the floor.

“The time that passed from the time the tactical team was advised that there might be a problem regarding S/Sgt Ghadban and the time the gunshot was heard was about ten minutes,” the news release states, adding that it was only “a couple of minutes” between the time the officers entered the outer office and the shot was heard.

“The team hadn’t even had a chance to organize and assemble before having to quickly enter the inner office; they were too late to make a difference,” the release said.

“It cannot be said that anything they did or omitted to do would have caused the scenario to have ended any differently. As a result, no criminal liability for negligence could attach to any member of the tactical team.”

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.