FATAL POLICE SHOOTING UNDER INVESTIGATION

Driver of car, 32, shot as undercover officers attempt to make arrest at
local gas station

The province's Special Investigations Unit is appealing for witnesses as it
continues to probe the death of a man who was shot by a Toronto police
officer at a Scarborough gas station Thursday night.

The civilian agency, which investigates whenever there is a serious injury
or death involving police, has assigned eight investigators to the case.

The shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. at the Petro-Canada station at the
northeast corner of Victoria Park Avenue and Ellesmere Road.

According to the SIU, plainclothes officers with the drug squad were
conducting an investigation and were trying to arrest two men in an
Infiniti car.

The officers were approaching the vehicle when there was a confrontation
between the driver and the officers.

One officer shot and killed the driver, 32-year-old Courtney Peters, the
SIU said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy was performed
Friday afternoon.

Toronto police also took a 22-year-old man into custody.

The SIU said preliminary information indicates the officer fired two shots.

The gas station was cordoned off with yellow police tape for the investigation.

A collision reconstruction team with the Toronto Police Service's traffic
services unit was also at the scene where officers were seen examining an
unmarked police car, a Pontiac Grand Am SE, with damage to its rear.
Another unmarked police vehicle, a Jeep, was also at the scene.

The police tape was removed and the station was reopened shortly after 10
a.m. Friday. The Grand Am was taken away by a police tow truck.

The gas station's manager declined to comment on the incident.

SIU spokesperson Rose Bliss said the Infiniti was not registered to Peters,
"but it's not stolen either."

She said the car was taken away to be "thoroughly searched, examined and
analyzed for any evidentiary material."

A clerk at a nearby convenience store said she is scared because the
shooting "happened so close."

She said her father heard two shots while he worked at the store Thursday
night.

The SIU has designated one subject and five witness officers. A subject
officer is the one whose conduct appears to have caused the death under
investigation.

"That officer's conduct is the focus of our investigation. We've seized
that officer's firearm," said Bliss.

SECOND FATAL SHOOTING

The length of SIU investigations varies, but the majority of the cases
close within a month.

This is the second fatal police shooting in Scarborough this year. On May
21, Jeffrey Reodica, 17, was shot by a plainclothes police officer. Reodica
later died in hospital.

The SIU released its findings in that investigation this September and
ruled the officer was "legally justified" in shooting Reodica.

Bliss said some witnesses have been interviewed in connection with Thursday
night's shooting.

"We are appealing for anyone who has any information to contact us," she added.

Witnesses are asked to call the SIU at 416-622-1957.