Zoltan Hyacinth, a man who had been shot at by a Toronto police officer five years before his death, accidentally killed himself in a confrontation with police, according to an SIU investigation.

The 23-year-old was killed on March 17 while police were trying to arrest him at a Burger King drive-through near Keele St. and Wilson Ave.

According to the SIU, an officer had him pinned down on the ground, when Hyacinth reached for his gun and fired three bullets, accidentally shooting himself in the head. All police involved have been cleared in his death.

It was not Hyacinth’s first brush with the law; in October 2007, he narrowly avoided being shot by a cop when he was involved in a struggle with two Toronto police officers. He launched a civil lawsuit in connection with the incident, which was later settled out of court.

This time police had been investigating Hyacinth in connection with a violent robbery when they confronted him at the Burger King. A dozen plainclothes officers surrounded his Pontiac Sunfire, boxed him in with police vehicles, and told him he was under arrest. A woman in the passenger seat was removed by police, but Hyacinth allegedly refused to leave the car. According to the SIU report, he even tried to hit the gas pedal to push a police cruiser out of the way.

Two officers tried to pull him out of the car, with one of them eventually forcing Hyacinth onto the ground in a bear hug with his back to the officer’s chest. According to the SIU, that is when Hyacinth pulled out his gun and fired three shots, one of them into the right side of his own head. He was taken to Sunnybrook hospital and declared dead.

“I am of the view that the police actions in this incident cannot attract any criminal liability — Mr. Hyacinth was the inadvertent author of his own misfortune,” wrote SIU director Ian Scott.

For the investigation, the SIU relied on interviews with civilians and officers, as well as footage from the Burger King’s security camera and an autopsy.

The Special Investigations Unit, the province’s third-party investigator, is called whenever police are involved in incidents that lead to a serious injury or death or when officers are accused of sexual assault.

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