Three OPP officers have been charged in connection with the death of a young child in the City of Kawartha Lakes.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) announced Wednesday they had found reasonable grounds to believe the officers committed criminal offences.
Jameson Shapiro, an 18-month-old, died in November 2020. It has previously been confirmed that he was shot by police.
His father died days later.
Constables Nathan Vanderheyden, Kenneth Pengelly and Grason Cappus are facing one count each of manslaughter and one count each of criminal negligence causing death. All of the charges relate to Shapiro’s death.
Few details have been released about the shootings.
Officers were responding to an alleged child abduction on November 26, 2020 when they encountered the father and son in a truck.
According to the SIU, the officers tried to stop the truck. They say the truck then struck a cruiser and an officer who had been laying down a spike belt.
After the shootings, the child was found inside the truck with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The father was airlifted to hospital and succumbed to his injuries the following week.
The injured officer was taken to hospital with injuries.
The SIU said in November that they had received a forensic report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and were reviewing it.
