The Province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has ruled there’s no basis for criminal charges against the OPP in the July 15th, 2020 death of a Dysart man in Haliburton.
That day police followed 73-year-old Leslie Hegedus to his Indian Point Road residence after he attended the Valu-Mart in Minden where he fought and assaulted staff members over wearing a mask.
The SIU report states that when police approached the residence, two shots were fired at two police officers by Hegedus with his rifle, but the officers were not hit.
Police discharged their firearms and hit Hegedus, who suffered three wounds in the lower right extremity. He was taken to the Haliburton Highland Health Services hospital where he was later pronounced dead at 11:47 am.
SIU Director Joseph Martino reports there are no reasonable grounds to believe that either of the officers involved in the case acted other than lawfully throughout the incident.
Martino writes that the responding officers indicated they fired their weapons in fear of their, and each other’s, lives.
“There is nothing in the record to cast doubt on those assertions,” concludes Martino in his report.
To read the report in its entirety, click here
Photo of Leslie Hegedus’s Ruger Mini 14 .223 caliber rifle via the SIU
SIU Clears OPP Officers Who Fatally Shot Haliburton Man https://t.co/PZgldlczse
— Special Investigations Unit (@SIUOntario) July 26, 2021