Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
A Toronto police officer is facing charges in connection with the shooting of a man in a northwest city park earlier this year, according to the province’s police watchdog.
In a news release Friday, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said Const. Andrew Davis is facing the following criminal charges:
- One count of aggravated assault.
- One count of discharge firearm with intent to maim, wound, disfigure or endanger life.
Davis is required to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice at on Oct. 3.
He had worked for the Toronto Police Service for a year at the time of the incident and is currently suspended with pay, a member of the force’s media relations team told CBC Toronto.
The SIU said its investigation found that on Feb. 27, officers were called to a park in the area of Black Creek Drive and Trethewey Drive for a report of a man with a knife. Two officers discharged Tasers at the man, while another officer fired his gun twice.
The man, 31, was taken to hospital with serious injuries, the SIU said. No other injuries were reported.
The injured man was later identified as Devon Fowlin.
Devin Fowlin spoke with reporters on Wednesday, March 22, after he was shot by Toronto police a month earlier. (Martin Trainor/CBC)
Weeks after he was injured, Fowlin spoke out about the incident, alleging police did not try to de-escalate the situation before firing at him.
Fowlin said he was walking his dog that morning with a knife in his hand, calling it “the knife I cook and live with inside of my vehicle.” His lawyer at the time said he had been experiencing homelessness.
“I also do pray, you know, with it, so I was doing a prayer that very same morning,” Fowlin said, adding that no one else was in the park around him.
Fowlin told reporters he raised his arm while holding the knife a few times when in the area, and that the third time he did so, he saw a Honda Civic being driven by a police officer pull into the park’s parking lot.
As the officer approached him, Fowlin said he tried to walk away to get his dog inside of his own vehicle.
It was then, he said, that two police SUVs pulled into the parking lot, blocked off his vehicle, and five officers got out and lined up side by side.
Fowlin said the officers pointed their guns at him “right away.”
“They shouted one command, and immediately I felt a shot, and right after I just heard multiple shots going off,” Fowlin said.
Fowlin said he dropped the knife and ran, before he fell in the intersection of Black Creek and Trethewey Drive.
Lawyer ‘pleased’ by SIU decision to lay charges
Fowlin’s lawyer David Shellnutt said he was “pleased to see serious charges being laid in this very concerning case.”
In a statement, Shellnut called the SIU’s decision to charge the officer “a rare step” and expressed appreciation for its “thoughtful and compassionate investigation.”
However, Shellnut said he wonders what was involved in this case that made it unique, and why similar charges were not laid by the SIU in other police shooting cases.
“This is a positive step forward for Devon and his family. However, it does not erase what happened and what he has endured, serious injuries that are both physical and psychological in nature,” Shellnut said.
“These injuries have made the last few months since the shooting nearly unbearable. Life has been incredibly difficult…. The costs to Devon, his family and our communities runs incredibly high from incidents like this.”
‘An unfortunate incident for everyone,’ police association says
Toronto Police Association (TPA) president Jon Reid says the the officers’ union continues to provide support to Davis, as it would for any officer charged by the SIU.
“This is an unfortunate incident for everyone involved and we know this has been, and will continue to be, a difficult time for Const. Davis, his family, and his colleagues,” Reid said in a written statement.
“As an association, it is our responsibility to ensure our member receives fair and thorough representation. Since the time of this incident, the TPA has provided support to the member. This is the same process that would be followed for any member of the TPA who is charged by the Special Investigations Unit.”
Reid said police officers are governed by the highest degree of oversight and accountability, more so than any other profession.
He called on the public to “wait for the case to make its way through the courts and for the disciplinary process that may follow,” adding that “in the interim, there is no value in passing judgment on this officer or with casting aspersions on an entire membership.”
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