MORRISBURG – Some time just after 11 a.m. Saturday morning, December 23rd, a shooting involving police at the Morrisburg detachment of the OPP occurred in the parking lot.
“I definitely heard gunshots,” said one eyewitness who was at the MacEwan gas station across the road at the time. “As I looked over I saw two police officers, one with gun drawn, the other picking himself up off the ground.”
The eyewitness described that a third person, a civilian laid motionless on the ground near the north entrance to the police building. They later saw a police officer performing CPR on the civilian.
In a release Saturday afternoon from the OPP East Region headquarters, acting staff Sergeant Chrystal Jones said that a member of the Morrisburg detachment was involved in an incident with an adult male outside of the detachment.
“During the altercation the adult male sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene,” said Jones. “The officer is being treated for undetermined injuries.”
The OPP notified the province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) which invoked its mandate and is on the scene as of 5:00 p.m. Saturday. The scene was cordoned off by police and the SIU until Sunday morning. The SIU is an arm’s length agency of the province that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
In the initial release from the SIU, their preliminary information says that a man entered the OPP detachment located at 6 Fifth Street West. There was an interaction between the man and officers and one of the officers discharged a firearm. The man was struck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The release states that four investigators and three forensic investigators have been assigned to the incident.
CBC Ottawa has identified 43 year old Babak Saidi from Iroquois as the deceased. The man’s family told the CBC that Saidi suffered from schizophrenia and was required to check in weekly to the detachment following his 2014 conviction for assault and battery. The SIU confirmed the deceased identity in a release December 24th.
“As the family has given us consent to release the man’s name, I am now able to confirm that is the correct name,” said Monica Hudon — SIU communications. “At this time, one subject officer and 10 witness officers have been designated.”
A post-mortem is scheduled for Wednesday in Ottawa.
When asked by The Leader, Hudon confirmed the man was shot outside of the OPP building. Hudon added that she did not have information on the officer who was injured. An inquiry to the OPP has not been responded to as of 2:40 p.m.
We will continue to add more details will be updated as they become available.
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