WARNING: This story contains disturbing details. 

Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared an officer of any wrongdoing in connection with the shooting death of a 23-year-old man in Wapekeka First Nation.

Tyresse Kenny Padro Cree Roundsky died on July 31, 2025 after receiving a gunshot wound to the chest.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says the man, identified by his family and community as Roundsky, had approached an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer with a knife.

The incident took place in a makeshift courtroom inside the community’s youth centre, which burned down less than a month later.

The officer fired three shots at him. 

The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates police conduct resulting in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

The agency released its report on Thursday, saying “there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.”

However, SIU director Joseph Martino noted that it took 40 minutes for officers to approach Roundsky’s body after he was shot.

“Though vested with a duty to preserve and protect life, there is evidence to suggest that the [OPP officer] unnecessarily delayed in rendering first-aid to [Roundsky] after the shooting,” Martino wrote.

“I will be raising this matter in my reporting letter to the OPP Commissioner. I will also be referring the matter to the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency.”

Wapekeka First Nation is a remote Oji-Cree community about 450 kilometres northeast of Sioux Lookout in northwestern Ontario. Just under 500 people live there.

In less than a year and a half, three men with ties to Wapekeka First Nation were shot and killed by police in northwestern Ontario. The others were:

The SIU cleared the police officers involved of any wrongdoing in all three cases.

Shots fired in self-defense: SIU

The SIU says three investigators and two forensic investigators were assigned to Roundsky’s case.

A total of 18 civilian witnesses were interviewed between Aug. 1, 2025 and Aug. 21, 2025. A service employee witness was also interviewed.

The OPP officer, referred to as the subject official (SO) in the report, declined to be interviewed or provide notes.

The SIU’s investigation was delayed due to the time it took the agency to obtain an audio recording from the courtroom where the incident occurred.

“The evidence indicates that the SO fired his gun at [Roundsky] to defend himself from a reasonably apprehended attack,” Martino said in the report.

“Though the SO, as was his legal right, did not provide that evidence in an interview with the SIU, his mindset can safely be inferred from the circumstances that prevailed at the time, most emphatically, [Roundsky] advancing towards the officer with a knife when he discharged his weapon.”

Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.