Niagara officer cleared by SIU in fatal shooting of murder, child abduction suspect

A Niagara police officer who shot and killed a man accused of murdering a woman and abducting a child last October has been cleared by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

On Oct. 21, 2025, a large-scale manhunt began following 38-year-old Anthony Deschepper shooting and killing a woman in Brampton, Ont., and then fleeing with her child, triggering an Amber Alert.

The child was reportedly left with family members before Deschepper fled Brampton for Niagara Falls.

Officers located him at a gas station near Thorold Stone and Montrose roads in Niagara Falls early the next morning.

According to the SIU, Niagara police surrounded the man’s vehicle where he was hiding and broke down the windows. This is when Deschepper emerged from underneath blankets in the rear of the vehicle and fired three shots towards an officer.

The officer fired back, discharging eight or nine rounds into the vehicle, striking Deschepper multiple times and killing him.

After investigating the incident, the director of the SIU, Joseph Martino, says there are no reasonable grounds to charge the officer who killed Deschepper.

Martino says the officer’s life was in danger and he fired in self-defence. He adds that the Niagara officer used reasonable force in the altercation.

“[He] had every reason to believe that he needed to act to save himself and his fellow officers from death or grievous bodily harm,” said Martino.

The report says a pathologist found that Deschepper died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Police later confirmed that the one-year-old girl for whom the Amber Alert was issued was found safe. The murder of the woman in Brampton was believed to be a case of intimate-partner violence.

With files from The Canadian Press.

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