Three Ontario Provincial Police officers were charged with manslaughter this week in the shooting death of 18-month-old Jameson Shapiro in Kawartha Lakes, Ont., nearly two years ago.
A website known as the Peterborough Scanner Feed, which publishes articles based on police information, has since released audio online of what it says are police radio communications on November 26, 2020, after a father allegedly abducted his young son of.
On its YouTube page with a 12-minute recording, the Peterborough Scanner Feed said it hopes the release of the audio helps listeners “understand the situation a little better”.
The audio adds new details to the chain of events released by Ontario police, who investigated what happened and laid charges against the officers.
As police pursue the father’s truck, a woman who appears to be a dispatcher can be heard telling officers of the presence of a child.
“Just let the units know there’s a child in this vehicle, there’s a child in the vehicle,” he can be heard saying.
A short time later, someone says the driver of the vehicle was seen holding a gun to his head.
“He’s pretty desperate, he had a gun to his head,” someone is heard saying.
A dispatcher later says police are working to get the man’s cell phone and have a negotiator on hand to contact him.
The chase is heard to continue for a few minutes until a series of loud bangs are heard.
“Gunshots, gunshots, officer down, officer down,” someone is then heard saying as more bangs are heard and a series of visible moans are heard on the feed.
Someone is heard calling for medical help and a dispatcher is heard saying an ambulance is on the way.
“We have a kid who’s a VSA, a fallen officer,” he says at one point.
The Special Investigations Unit said three officers opened fire on the father’s truck – with Jameson in the back seat – after the truck crashed into a police cruiser, injuring an officer who was leaving a studded belt.
Jameson died that day, while his father died of his injuries in hospital nearly a week later.  The SIU said evidence indicates police gunfire killed both the father and his child.
OPP spokesman Bill Dickson said Friday that the force is “aware that the dispatch audio has been posted online.”
“This audio will almost certainly be part of the evidence presented in court, so we will not be able to elaborate on any of the details,” he wrote in a statement.
The OPP Union, which represents nearly 10,000 members, said officers involved in the case were “doing everything they could” to arrest the father who allegedly kidnapped his child.
“Our officers were dealing with a man with a gun in a vehicle with his abducted son,” union president Rob Stinson wrote in a statement Friday.  “No police officer goes to work wanting to hurt a child.”
Stinson said the officers and other staff have been “traumatized” by what happened.
He also said that the officer who was hit that day was very seriously injured, has undergone eight surgeries and is still off duty.
“His life has changed forever.  The good news is that the officer is recovering as best he can and hopes to return to work,” Stinson wrote.
OPP constables Nathan Vanderheyden, Kenneth Pengelly and Grayson Cappus have been charged with one count of manslaughter and one count of criminal negligence causing death in Jameson’s death.
They will appear in court in Lindsay, Ont.  on October 6.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 2, 2022.