A Durham police officer is not facing charges for the shooting death of a man in Port Perry earlier this year. The victim was identified at the time by Metroland Media as Gerald Rattu, 59, of Woodville.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit says officers were called to a Waterbury Crescent home January 16 for a man with a knife. When the officer arrived, a woman allegedly told the officer, “He’s going to kill us— you have to get up there!”
The SIU says the officer yelled at the man to drop the butcher knife and the man began to walk towards the officer saying, “shoot me” and “kill me.” The officer then backed up all the way to his car and when the man began to pick up the pace towards him, he fired two shots, one striking the man. The SIU says the man fell back into a snowbank and the officer then almost immediately applied pressure to the man’s chest until paramedics arrived and took him to Port Perry hospital where he was pronounced dead.
“The officer was faced with a dangerous and dynamic situation that unfolded quickly over a mere 52 seconds. His fear for his own safety was both subjectively and objectively reasonable and his actions were directed towards self-preservation,” said SIU Director Tony Loparco. “His decision to fire his gun was reasonable in the circumstances and he only did so when he had no other options.”
Investigators determined there was no reasonable grounds to believe the officer exceeded the “ambit of justifiable force” and no charges will be laid.
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