The Special Investigations Unit has concluded its investigation into a fatal officer-involved shooting in Markham last year and found no grounds for criminal charges.
At 9:15 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2022, 35-year-old Moses Erhirhie died after he was shot during an interaction with a York Regional Police officer. According to the SIU's report, he had parked the white Hyundai Elantra he was driving in a parking lot at Highway 7 and Fairburn Drive in Markham.
Video footage obtained from a business in the area shows Erhirhie, who is referred to in the report as the complainant, exited the vehicle, which was left running and appeared to be urinating into the nearby snowbank. He was standing there for about 25 seconds before an officer in a marked police SUV came to a stop near the Hyundai.
The officer and complainant appeared to have a conversation before engaging in a foot chase. Erhirhie ran back to his car and got in the driver's seat. When the officer reached into the car, he attempted to pull out the driver, but the vehicle began reversing. The SIU said it reversed slowly, then stopped before reversing again quickly, coming to a stop on an incline on the snowbank.
A female passenger then exited onto the ground. The report found that Erhirhie was likely also attempting to exit the vehicle through the open passenger side door when the officer discharged three rounds from his firearm. The complainant was struck and collapsed on the front seat.
The officer walked around to the passenger side of the vehicle, still holding his gun, where the female witness raised both her arms. The officer radioed that shots had been fired and requested EMS on the scene. Other officers began arriving and placed the female in custody. The complainant was pulled from the vehicle and one of the officers found a gun on him. Officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead at 10:17 p.m. An autopsy determined Erhirhie's cause of death was gunshot wounds to the torso.
The in-car camera system from the police vehicle did not capture the shooting but captured the events after. In that footage, the officer can be heard telling the second officer on scene, "He almost ran me over, guy almost killed me.”
After interviewing a number of witnesses and reviewing various video and radio communication footage, the SIU concluded that there are "no reasonable grounds to believe that the (officer) committed a criminal offence in connection with the complainant’s death."
It referenced Section 34 of the Criminal Code that states a person is not guilty of an offence if they believe on reasonable grounds that force is being taken against them or someone else and the act is committed in defence or for protection.
In this case, it said the officer likely shot the complainant in an attempt to defend himself from an attack and that he likely believed he would be killed by the Hyundai.
While the SIU said much is still unknown in this incident, including why the officer engaged with Erhirhie in the first place, it said video footage makes it clear that Erhirhie was "desperate to get away" and it suggested that because he was in possession of a loaded firearm, it would have resulted in serious criminal charges.
"Though perhaps not his intention to hurt or assault the (officer), the complainant’s frenzied efforts to escape apprehension in his vehicle gave the officer reason to believe that his life was in imminent danger," the report said.
It further stated that though the Hyundai had come to a stop on the snowbank, the officer had cause to stop it from moving again may have "reasonably feared that his life was at imminent risk with the continued operation of the Hyundai."
As a result of the investigation, SIU director Joseph Martino closed the file and said "while it is a tragedy that the complainant lost his life in the interaction with the (officer), there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the officer comported himself other than within the limits of the criminal law. As such, there is no basis for moving forward with criminal charges in this case."
