The Special Investigations Unit has cleared a Toronto police officer in the fatal shooting of a suspect during a violent takedown in Scarborough last summer because his colleague’s “life hung in the balance.”

“I have no reason to doubt that the (subject officer) believed it was necessary in the moment to shoot the (suspect) to thwart the (suspect’s) attack and protect his teammate from an imminent risk of death or grievous bodily harm,” SIU director Joseph Martino concluded in his report dated March 9 and released Monday.

The report from Ontario’s police watchdog outlined what happened on the night of June 25, 2019.

York Region police found a stolen Mercedes Benz C3900 in Thornhill in the morning and contacted Toronto police, the report said.

The car and the 21-year-old driver, who isn’t identified in the report, had been wanted by Toronto police after being linked to several drive-by shootings.

Since it was likely that the suspect was armed, officers from Toronto police’s guns and gangs unit in plainclothes and unmarked cars were called in to follow the driver and make an arrest when an opportunity came.

Throughout the afternoon, the unit watched as the suspect drove “recklessly” and made several stops at strip malls where he appeared to be involved in illicit drug transactions, the report said.

Just before 8 p.m., the vehicle stopped at a red light on Midland Avenue at Midwest Road. The officers’ unmarked vehicles pulled up and surrounded the suspect’s car on all sides. Officers emerged and ordered the driver and the passengers to get out of the vehicle.

The driver stayed in the car and accelerated forward, pinning a police officer against a Honda Accord, the report said.

Another officer immediately fired three shots in rapid succession through the windshield at the driver, who suffered gunshot wounds to his right chest, left shoulder and left flank of his chest.

The driver was taken to Sunnybrook hospital where he was pronounced dead. The officer who was struck was taken to Scarborough General Hospital for leg injuries and released the same day.

Martino concluded in his report that the officer’s use of force was justifiable given the fact that his colleague’s “life and limb were in clear peril” while he was pinned between the two vehicles.

Doing anything else would have “risked precious additional time during which (the officer) would remain in grave danger,” Martino wrote.

“The officer’s life hung in the balance with every second while he remained stuck in that position. Resolute and prompt action was required to disable the Mercedes’ operating mind.”

Martino concluded that the officer’s “lethal force was anything other than a commensurate, proportional and reasonable response to a lethal threat.”

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“As for the fact that multiple rounds were fired by the (officer), these occurred in such rapid succession that I am unable to infer any meaningful difference in the threat level the officer would have perceived across the three shots.”

The SIU is an arm’s-length provincial agency that investigates incidents involving police in which someone is killed, injured or accused of sexual assault.