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London police officers 'acted appropriately' in fatal shooting: Internal review

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London police have released the findings of their own internal review of the fatal 2016 police shooting of Samuel Maloney, a five-page account his former lawyer said too closely parallels the results of the investigation by Ontario’s police watchdog.

Last June, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) cleared London police of any criminal wrongdoing in the December 2016 death, the first fatal police shooting in the city in 20 years.

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Police attained a search warrant for Maloney’s home at 56 Duchess Ave. as part of an investigation into allegations of data mischief and unauthorized use of a computer. Officers broke the front door of the home with Maloney, his spouse Melissa Facciolo and their two young children inside.

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The internal review found that an officer – identified through court records as Const. Doug Brown –encountered a shirtless Maloney in a front computer room in the home, where he shot the officer in the abdomen with a crossbow “without warning.” Believing Maloney also had a gun and was about to shoot the crossbow again, the officer shot his gun three times, hitting Maloney once in the shoulder.

The officer retreated and communicated with other officers while attempting to de-escalate the situation with Maloney and convince him to surrender with his hands up.

“Mr. Maloney refused and, holding a hatchet above his head, screamed and ran to the rear bedroom area,” the review states.

Another officer who was positioned at the bedroom door shot five rounds, three hitting Maloney in the chest as he approached. Maloney fell in the bedroom doorway, still clutching the hatchet, the internal police review states.

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A third officer saw the second officer fall backward, and believing Maloney shot him and was still armed, shot Maloney once in the head.

“Mr. Maloney slumped into a prone position with the hatchet beneath his body. He was declared dead at the scene,” the review states.

The results of the internal police review – which quotes heavily from the SIU report – aren’t surprising, Maloney’s former lawyer Nick Cake said.

“It’s essentially a cut and paste, is what I thought,” said Cake, who claims he was on the phone with Maloney when the incident unfolded. “I’ve spoken out about the nature of the SIU report previously. . . I think the SIU report is wrong. It ignores a lot of lived experiences that other witnesses saw or heard.”

This week, Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner announced it will be launching a coroner’s inquest into Maloney’s death, a formal hearing where the facts of the death are laid out and a five-person jury makes recommendations to prevent similar deaths from occurring.

A date for the inquest has not yet been set.

“I’m excited to see what the coroner’s inquest comes up with,” Cake said. “I think that will be a very interesting evaluation of the circumstances.”

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The SIU and internal review both say it’s likely Maloney was armed and waiting for police after spotting officers on his outdoor cameras and hearing them at the door.

The police watchdog said investigators recovered several knives on Maloney’s person. The three officers – all of whom co-operated fully with the SIU probe – fired a total of nine shots, five of which hit Maloney, the watchdog said.

London police’s designated use of force instructor was satisfied with the SIU report and the department’s internal review.

“In review of the SIU analysis, as well as referring to London Police Service procedures, I do not have anything further to add, or to dispute, within the SIU analysis. It is my respectful opinion that these officers acted appropriately in these circumstances as outlined within the SIU report,” Sgt. Andrew Bakker said in a statement.

In addition to the report, SIU director Tony Loparco sent a letter to London police Chief John Pare outlining several criticisms and concerns about how the investigation and the search warrant unfolded. Police launched a review and found investigators had established “reasonable and probable grounds” to believe Maloney had committed a crime and the devices he used were inside his Old South home.

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The police review recommended the department continues its criminal investigations and search warrant training and makes a search warrant checklist available for investigators to reference.

Facciolo, Maloney’s widow, has launched a $17-million civil lawsuit against London police over the shooting. A statement of defence filed by London police argues, in part, that the officers opened fire in part out of concerns for the safety of Maloney’s children.

Maloney’s death marks the first fatal shooting by London police in two decades. The previous one occurred when a police sniper shot and killed David Melzer during an 11-hour standoff at his parents’ Pond Mills home on June 2, 2000. The incident began when Melzer started firing a shotgun in the house, wounding his mother and a friend.

jbieman@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JenatLFPress

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