Family of First Nation man shot 5 times by police officer calls for changes at Ontario's SIU
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Joshua Frogg says he isn’t surprised about the outcome of the investigation into his nephew's death, but wants to see changes to prevent former police officers from being involved in these types of cases.
Eric Nothing, 40, was shot and killed by a Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) officer on July 22 in Deer Lake First Nation, a remote Oji-Cree community about 580 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says Nothing had approached the officer with two knives and his shirt was on fire.
He shot Nothing five times. The SIU cleared the officer of wrongdoing.
“I'm a hunter, right? So when I shoot an animal, I don't keep on shooting it when it goes down,” Frogg said. “When it was revealed to us that all five shots hit their target, it just sounds like he kept on shooting after Eric went down.”
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates police conduct resulting in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
In clearing the officer last week, SIU director Joseph Martino said he “was satisfied that the officer shot the man to protect himself from a reasonably apprehended knife attack.”
A year earlier, Nothing’s father, Bruce Wallace Frogg, was shot and killed by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer in Kenora. The SIU determined there was no basis to lay criminal charges in connection with his death.
“The last two [SIU] reports haven't made any sense to us,” Joshua Frogg said.
Joshua's other nephew, 23-year-old Tyresse Kenny Padro Cree Roundsky, was shot and killed by a police officer in a makeshift courtroom in Wapekeka First Nation on July 31. The SIU’s investigation into his death remains ongoing.
“I really feel for [Roundsky’s immediate] family because I think it's going to be the same result,” Joshua said of the investigation.
“I don't expect anything different, right? Police policing themselves — that's just not normal, not acceptable.”
The SIU has historically been criticized for how many of its investigators have police backgrounds. CBC News reached out to the SIU about this and received an emailed statement on Wednesday.
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