Hamilton officer cleared by SIU for shooting man in March

The Hamilton police officer involved in the shooting of a man in March has been cleared by Ontario’s police watchdog.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) began investigating after an officer fired their gun and hit a 30-year-old man who had stabbed a man to death in his downtown Hamilton.

“The SIU found no reasonable grounds to believe a Hamilton police officer committed a criminal offense in connection with shooting and wounding a 30-year-old man,” the statement from the SIU says.

The suspect, 30-year-old David Gomez-Rodriguez, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for stabbing 74-year-old Charles James Francis Jouvence on March 16.

Hamilton police arrived at an apartment building on the corner of Hunter Street East and Spring Street at around 4 p.m.

READ MORE: Hamilton police arrest man in Hunter Street homicide investigation

Officers found Jouvence on the front porch, he was transported to hospital where he later died.

Gomez-Rodriguez was found in a room of the apartment with the door closed when police forced their way into the room and were met with the man jabbing a knife at them.

Responding officers discharged their weapons and one of the bullets hit the man.

Gomez-Rodriguez was treated for his injuries and later arrested in Hamilton.

Police later revealed that the apartment belonged to Jouvence and that he lived there alone.

The suspect did not live in the building and did not know the victim but was known to police before the stabbing.

READ MORE: SIU investigated police involved shooting following fatal stabbing in Hamilton