Cornwall Ontario – Media and the SIU have id’d the shooting victim at the Morrisburg OPP detachment as BABAK SAIDI, said to be from Iran.
Ultimately there should be footage from the OPP detachment that should show what happened, but now Mr Saidi’s sister gave an interview with the CBC that included:
Recounting her father’s version of events, Elly Saidi said when they arrived at the police station, they were told to wait about 15 minutes. They went to do some grocery shopping, and when they came back, Babak Saidi got out of the car to go inside.
The next thing her father saw, she said, was her brother on the ground, with two officers on top of him.
Babak Saidi was taken into the detachment, she said, and then — within two minutes — her father heard two shots ring out.
‘Sorry, your son is gone’
A police officer told her father and his friend to go wait at a nearby Tim Hortons, Elly Saidi said, and that someone would come by to explain what happened.
“They waited for a few hours, and then the police came,” she said. “My dad asked the police, ‘Where is my son?’ And the police officer told my dad that, sorry, your son is gone.”
Elly Saidi also said in the interview that her brother suffered from Mental illness.
A darker description of the man, referred to as “the most hated man in Brockville”, on a website that caters to calling out criminal activity, refers to a history of assault and drugs. Mr. Babak had been in the police blotter in 2015 and 2016.
The Morrisburg detachment is no stranger to escalations due to mental illness. The detachment still has not been held accountable for its handling of Canadian War Hero Collin Fitzgerald which included the death of the Fitzgerald family dog, and false allegations of arson. Mr. Fitzgerald has PTSD and now after leaving the community has rebuilt his life around service to other veterans.
Asked for comment for this story Mr. Fitzgerald stated that he had nothing to say at this time. He has shared in other media of huge legal bills to prove his innocence and the difficulty of holding the OPP detachment accountable for his, and his family’s experience.
Update: SIU Releases Name of Man Fatally Shot in Morrisburg
Case Number: 17-PFD-373
Other News Releases Related to Case 17-PFD-373
Witness Assistance
Mississauga, ON (24 December, 2017) —
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. Under the Police Services Act, the Director of the SIU must
- consider whether an officer has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
- depending on the evidence, lay a criminal charge against the officer if appropriate or close the file without any charges being laid
- report the results of any investigations to the Attorney General.