If police shoot and kill a baby and no one is there to testify, does it make a sound?

Crown withdraws charges against Ontario cops who killed baby

Image of the Toyota Tundra and baby Jameson. Grabbed from Metroland.

The road is full of parents driving children to school and daycare but for Jameson, he’s not sure where he’s going. His father maybe told him they were going to see grandma, or to Tim Horton’s or maybe he said nothing or simply told the child to be quiet. We don’t know what was being said in that rust-coloured Toyota Tundra that morning.

The father, William Shapiro at some point started driving fast. He must have known that police knew he had abducted his son that morning. At 170 km/h, he was flying down Pigeon Lake Road in the Kawartha region of Ontario. Over the police radio, the order is given to give the guy space as they guide him towards a spikebelt (a ridiculous tool that usually makes a situation more dangerous).

The driver, it’s heard on the police radio, has a gun to his head.

And little Jameson, just 18 months old, is in the car.

William hit or veered* away from the spikebelt which caused him to slam into two vehicles, seriously injuring a police officer and damaging a civilian’s car (*I’ve found both accounts in reporting). He went from driving 170 km/h, likely in some kind of personal crisis, to having the breaks put on for him. Who knows what Jameson was thinking as he swerved his car all over the road and crashed into two vehicles.

Now, the cops seemingly had no plan about what to do *after* William would hit the spikebelt because it was at that moment when OPP Constables Nathan Vanderheyden, Kenneth Pengelly and Grayson Cappus opened fire on the Tundra.

The three men knew that there was a baby in the truck. That information was shared with them on the radio and, besides, Jameson’s safety was the reason police started chasing William in the first place. While there was no Amber Alert issued, there was a notice put out that William had abucted his son. And there they all were, at about 8:45 in the morning, William likely hearing the bullets pierce his truck and kill his son, just before he was fatally wounded by another bullet.

Here’s how Rosie Dimanno (in an article that is, for some reason, not behind the Toronto Star’s paywall) described the offiecers’ actions: “One officer, Vanderheyden, fired 25 rounds from his Colt C8 semi-automatic rifle, from a distance of between six and seven feet. Cappus fired his Glock handgun 17 times. Pengelly fired his rifle three times. Forty-five shots were fired at and into the Toyota Tundra pickup that had approached at speed — up to nearly 180 kilometres an hour — before it sharply veered away from the spike belt which had been laid down across the westbound lane of Pigeon Lake Road, barrelling into the cruiser of Const. Chris Dobbs, who had been crouching in front of it. Dobbs was nearly killed, suffering "catastrophic" injuries, including a broken neck, back and two fractured legs.”

That’s right. Vanderheyden unloaded 25 rounds from as far away as 7 feet from the vehicle *knowing a child was inside.*

After a lengthy investigtion by the SIU, they made the rare call for charges to be laid against the officers. They were charged with manslaughter, or babyslaughter as the charges only related to Jameson. There was no recommendation from the SIU for the trio to be charged in William’s death. Because that death was just part of the job of being a cop in Canada.

Writing for The Conversation, Patrick Watson, Carmen Nave and Tandeep Sidhu argued that the trial would give the public important insights into how on earth three police officers could shoot and kill a baby: “One important thing to learn in this trial is why officers felt it was necessary to confront William rather than “backing off” as they had been instructed over their police radio. William was suspected of being armed — a gun was recovered at the scene.

After extensive examination and cross-examination, 12 jurors will be asked to conclude whether the three accused officers acted “reasonably.” If they decide not, the result will likely lead to greater scrutiny of tactics for intercepting suspected child abductors”

Alas, this week, the Crown withdrew the charges against Nathan Vanderheyden, Kenneth Pengelly and Grayson Cappus, citing the fact that they would have a hard time securing a conviction. Because, maybe, the trio did act in self defense and Jameson was just tragically, collatoral damage.

But imagine the next time you hear about an Amber Alert. You’re told to call the police if you see the truck and you do, and five hours later, the responding officers shoot the abducted child dead. That seems like a problem. And in that situation, or any situation, the officers can always claim that they were acting in self defence. The key witness is dead. The other witnesses are also cops. Who else could ever challenge their word? The cops wrote down notes saying that they were all very much afraid at the moment they were pounding William’s truck with bullets.

Police in Canada already have too much freedom to shoot and kill. And yet, when they murdered baby Jameson, it felt like maybe this time there could be justice. Maybe shooting at a truck, knowing full well that there was a baby inside, would be too far. But of course it wasn’t. This is part of the job for cops in Canada. God forbid they ever actually face danger; you know, maybe try to actually be a hero and manage a situation without unloading 25 rounds into a truck with a baby in it that you were apparently supposed to save.

As the OPP Association said in a press release about the case, “Our officers were doing their job according to their training.” It’s so much part of the job that at least one of the officers have seemingly continued to do police work.

Grayson Cappus, Kenneth Pengelly and Nathan Vanderhayden haven’t appeared on Ontario’s public sector salary disclosure list since 2021. Public sector salary disclosure lists Cappus as having received $110,261.65 in 2023 and, according to a website that says Copyright 2023, he is the co-chair of the Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committee for Kawartha Lakes.

If you want to see how often people die at the hands of police, check out Tracking Injustice.