Windsor police cleared of wrongdoing in shooting death of man

Two Windsor police officers made the right call when they shot and killed a distraught man attacking them with a steak knife last year, the province’s police watchdog said Thursday.

Despite dealing with unco-operative officers and a gap in video footage at the moment of the shooting, the Special Investigations Unit has cleared police of any wrongdoing in the death of 33-year-old Matthew Mahoney. The two unnamed officers shot him a total of seven times.

It happened March 21, 2018, outside a downtown McDonald’s.

“I find that it would have been foolish and reckless for (Subject Officer 1) and (Subject Officer 2) to risk their lives by waiting for the Complainant, with knife in hand, to further close the gap between himself and the officers thereby putting their own lives, and the lives of each other, at immediate risk of serious injury or death,” Tony Loparco, director of the Special Investigations Unit, wrote in the report released Thursday. “I further find that risk was not one that SO #1 and SO #2 ought to have had to take when faced with a knife wielding man who had shown he was not reluctant to use it and who was quickly advancing and slashing a dangerous weapon against the two officers.”

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