A woman is in critical condition in hospital following a police-involved shooting in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood. Emergency crews responded to a shooting in the 200 block of Avondale Avenue, near Tweedsmuir Avenue, at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
According to a news release, the SIU says the incident began at around 1:30 p.m. when police made a traffic stop in the area of Churchill Avenue and Avondale Avenue. A 25-year-old woman got out of the car and ran away, the SIU said. An officer followed.
“At some point, the officer discharged his firearm and the woman was struck. She was transported to hospital for treatment. The woman is in critical condition,” the SIU said.
Doesn’t sound like she presented a threat to anyone. I don’t think stopping a suspect from running away is a reasonable excuse to shoot them.
Exactly. Unless they pose an immediate risk to others, let 'em run if you don’t have any nonlethal options for stopping them. Police firearms should be a last resort for heading off physical danger.
If she did have a gun, then yes, it was reasonable for the officer to shoot her.
If the police were just yelling that to improve the optics, or because they weren’t putting enough effort into identifying a non-gun object that she was carrying, well . . .
Yeah they should have shared the details, but since they didn’t it’s a bad look.
Hypothetical better story:
‘at some point during the chase, she turned towards the officer, rushing him with a knife in hand. At that point the officer discharged their weapon’.
It’s all assumptions, but one can gamble that if they had such info, they would have shared it.
Doesn’t sound like she presented a threat to anyone. I don’t think stopping a suspect from running away is a reasonable excuse to shoot them.
It’s a residential neighbourhood with a rec centre and daycares nearby. A stray bullet could have made this an even worse story.
Exactly. Unless they pose an immediate risk to others, let 'em run if you don’t have any nonlethal options for stopping them. Police firearms should be a last resort for heading off physical danger.
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Fucking passive voice as per usual - “the woman was struck”, not “the pig shot her in the back.”
She tripped and landed on that bullet.
This deserves criminal charges imo
Another article mentioned that there was yelling from the police saying “drop the gun” so she may have actually been carrying a weapon.
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/westboro-residents-recall-frantic-scene-after-woman-shot-by-ottawa-police-officer-1.6819888
If she did have a gun, then yes, it was reasonable for the officer to shoot her.
If the police were just yelling that to improve the optics, or because they weren’t putting enough effort into identifying a non-gun object that she was carrying, well . . .
This needed to be in the main article.
Yeah they should have shared the details, but since they didn’t it’s a bad look.
Hypothetical better story: ‘at some point during the chase, she turned towards the officer, rushing him with a knife in hand. At that point the officer discharged their weapon’.
It’s all assumptions, but one can gamble that if they had such info, they would have shared it.