Police in Ejaz Choudry death tried to keep their identities secret. Now we know who they are

In the summer of 2023, an anonymous tipster wrote to CBC News claiming to know the name of the police officer who killed Ejaz Choudry.

The problem: it was almost impossible to confirm. Ontario's Special Investigations Unit identifies officers only if they are criminally charged. With no one charged in Choudry's death, the officers' names were never made public — until now.

More than four years after the 62-year-old father of four with schizophrenia was fatally shot inside his Mississauga apartment, CBC News has learned through newly filed court documents the names of the five key officers involved that day. 

For one, it wasn't his first deadly encounter with a person in crisis. Meanwhile, the officer who shot Choudry testified in a previous case that he tipped a paraplegic man from his wheelchair during an arrest. 

The revelations follow a battle by Peel Regional Police to keep the names and faces of the officers involved hidden from the public. Lawyers for the force pushed for a publication ban on the officers' identities, arguing making them public could put them at risk of physical violence — an argument an Ontario judge ultimately rejected. 

The release of the officers' names represents a "small measure of accountability," Choudry's family told CBC News in a statement.

"This is not simply about disclosing their identities, it is about putting faces to the decisions that led to the loss of my father. These individuals made choices during a mental health crisis that culminated in tragedy, and they must be held accountable for their actions," said Choudry's daughter Nemrah Amhad.

"Public accountability may not bring my father back, but it ensures that his story, and our fight for justice is heard. My father's life mattered, and by revealing these names, we ensure that those responsible can no longer remain faceless, or anonymous."

The officers and their lawyers declined to answer questions from CBC News, noting the family's lawsuit against police remains before the courts.

"As you are aware, this matter is in the midst of litigation, and accordingly, neither my clients nor I are in any position to comment," Eugene Mazzuca said in a statement. 

CBC News was the sole media outlet to intervene in the police's publication ban request, arguing for the public's right to know if the officer knocking on their door has ever pulled a trigger on someone in distress.

Indeed in Choudry's case, at least one of the officers involved had.

Officers' identities revealed

On the day he died, Choudry's family had called a non-emergency line concerned that he wasn't taking his medication, disclosing he had a small knife. Paramedics contacted police for help. When the attending officers asked to see the knife, Choudry showed them a kitchen knife and asked them to leave.

According to the family's lawsuit, Choudry said he "would not leave his home because he was afraid that the officers would shoot him." 

With no mobile crisis team available at the time, the officers left the apartment and created a plan to apprehend Choudry under the Mental Health Act. When he stopped responding to police, officers moved in.

Within 11 seconds of breaking down the balcony door, police Tasered Choudry, shot three rubber bullets at him and fired two live rounds into his chest, killing him.

In 2022, Choudry's family filed a $22-million lawsuit against the Peel Police Service Board, Chief Nishan Duraiappah and the five unnamed officers for what they say was a "reckless" response to a mental health distress call that ultimately cut Choudry's life short.

The family's updated statement of claim now reveals the officer who opened fire at Choudry was Jason Sandilands. Sandilands and two other officers, Adam Paiement and Marc Charlebois, climbed onto Choudry's balcony, Paiement armed with a less-lethal firearm and Charlebois with a Taser. 

The plan to apprehend Choudry was put together by Duty Inspector Scott Brennan. A fifth officer, Marc Roach, requested a tactical response unit.

WATCH | Bystander video shows tactical officers at Choudry's apartment: Video taken by a bystander shows tactical officers responding to a call at an apartment building on Morning Star Drive in June 2020. (Ibrahim Hindy/Twitter)

In their statement of defence, police said they entered Choudry's apartment "out of imminent concern for his safety given the medical history provided by his family, the elevated potential for self harm as he was in crisis and in possession of two knives, and the fact that police had lost complete contact with Choudry for a lengthy period of time."

The statement argues that once police entered the home, Choudry approached them "in a threatening manner" with the knife — a claim for which Ontario's police watchdog has said the officers were the only direct source of evidence — and non-lethal options to stop him from advancing were unsuccessful. 

The family says police "negligently allowed a straightforward mental health call to spiral out of control and become a high-risk tactical operation," adding the officers involved "deployed deadly force without justification."

Sandilands, who opened fire on Choudry, has never spoken publicly or to Ontario's police watchdog about the incident. 

All that is known of his perspective are the words another officer heard him say, as reported to the Special Investigations Unit: "I had to do it. I had no choice."

Officer who shot Choudry once tipped man in wheelchair

Sandilands has made headlines before. In 2006, he testified in court that he tipped a then-24-year-old paraplegic man from a wheelchair during an arrest, according to reporting from the Toronto Star.

The 24-year-old and another man had called 911 about a friend who had been stabbed. When Sandilands arrived, the pair claimed he wasn't doing anything to help. 

Sandilands testified the man in the wheelchair was swearing at him and flailing his arms and he tipped over the wheelchair to arrest him. Court heard from a witness that the man was instead thrown to the ground and dragged to a police cruiser, the paper reported.

Both men, charged with causing a disturbance, were later found not guilty. 

In a statement to CBC News, Peel police said Sandilands was investigated for the incident but "none of the allegations were substantiated."

Duty-Insp. Brennan, who created the "deliberate action plan" to apprehend Choudry, previously admitted to neglect of duty in mishandling the investigation of a woman's death in 2010 — Bridget Harrison, one of three family members found dead at a Mississauga home over a period of four years. Only after the third death did police consider the cases suspicious.

In accepting responsibility for the misconduct, the Toronto Star reported in 2020, Brennan was spared a police disciplinary hearing.

Not the 1st fatal encounter for one officer

For Paiement, who was also on Choudry's balcony with Sandilands, this wasn't his first fatal encounter with someone with mental health issues. 

In March 2015, Paiement was one of three officers who shot and killed 22-year-old Marc Ekamba at his Mississauga public housing unit.

Marc Ekamba died after being shot multiple times by Peel police on March 20, 2015. Officer Adam Paiement was among those who shot at Ekamba. Paiement would go on to join the force's tactical and rescue unit, which responded the day Choudry died. (Coroner’s Constable)

Police arrived at Ekamba's home about six hours after a neighbour reported that she was threatened by Ekamba and his mother. An inquest would later determine Ekamba appeared to be "experiencing delusions arising from mental illness."

Paiement testified in court in 2017 that he feared Ekamba had a weapon because he refused to take his hands out of his pocket. Paiement therefore felt it was "urgent" to arrest him and grabbed him. 

Amid the struggle, Paiement testified, Ekamba stabbed him in the leg and ran off. The inquest heard Ekamba then approached again, ignoring commands to drop the knife.

In total, police fired 19 bullets at Ekamba that day, 11 striking him. Also struck was a bystander in her kitchen. One of the three officers was also hit by a fellow officer's bullet.

In a statement to CBC News, Peel police said both the SIU and a subsequent internal investigation concluded there was no wrongdoing on Paiement's part. 

"Following any significant use of force incident, Peel Regional Police examines the circumstances from a training perspective to better equip officers for the unpredictability of the job," police said in a statement.

"All officers are required to partake in incident response training annually and the training continues to evolve."

Paiement went on to join the force's tactical and rescue unit. 

It was that unit that was called in the day Choudry died.

No Peel officers charged in in-custody deaths in 10+ years

Peel police say all new members of the tactical unit undergo a nine-week comprehensive basic tactical operators course, focusing on safe weapons handling, crisis de-escalation and the use of less lethal measures. After that, they undergo an additional week of specialized crisis negotiator training and annual training to maintain their readiness. They're also required to complete a three-day mental health awareness course.

The coroner's inquest into Ekamba's death went on to make 35 recommendations to prevent future deaths, including increased mental health training for police along with training on implicit bias. Peel police say all of the recommendations were implemented.

But in the years that followed Ekamba's death, the force came under increasing scrutiny as the list of people of colour in crisis who died in police encounters grew: Clive Mensah in 2019, Jamal Francique and D'Andre Campbell in 2020 and, later that year, Choudry.

No officers were charged in any of those cases.

Indeed, the Special Investigations Unit confirmed to CBC News that it has not charged a single Peel police officer in connection with a death in their custody for at least the past 10 years.  

Peel police have come under increasing scrutiny as the list of people of colour in crisis who died in police encounters has grown in recent years, including: Clive Mensah, left, in 2019, and Jamal Francique, centre, D’Andre Campbell, right, in 2020. Choudry died later that year. (New Haven Funeral Centre/Shenika Malcolm/Michael Charles Cole/CBC)

Under Ontario's Special Investigations Unit Act, the police watchdog publicly identifies police officers only if it finds grounds to charge them with a crime. 

As a result, there is virtually no publicly available information on officers involved in fatal encounters, except where they have been named in lawsuits brought by families of those killed. In Choudry's case, police attempted to keep their identities from being exposed in the family's lawsuit by applying for a publication ban. 

Superior Court Justice Paul M. Perell rejected that request, explaining Ontario's SIU Act does not mean police officers are automatically exempt from Canada's long-standing open court principle, which holds that — with few exceptions — court proceedings must be open to the public.

System 'seems designed to shield those responsible'

Perell noted that while police officers do face risks in the course of their work, there was no evidence to suggest that the officers in Choudry's death faced any additional threat of violent retribution if identified.

Moreover, Perell wrote: "There is no evidence that any police officer in Canada has been physically harmed as a result of any type of vigilante justice that the John Doe Officers fear."

"Without knowing the names of the John Doe Officers, journalists and the public have no way of knowing whether any of them may have been involved in previous incidents, and whether there may be a systemic problem or an isolated incident," he wrote.

Peel police cited this Instagram post in their motion arguing that the officers involved in Choudry's death not be publicly identified. The post calls for help identifying the 'suspects in the murder of Ejaz Choudry.' (@eyesonbluelies/Instagram)

With the officers' names now public, the Choudry family's lawsuit enters the next stage of a lengthy court battle.

It's a fight they say is both personal and systemic.

"We have been left to grieve, to rebuild our lives, and to advocate for justice in a system that often seems designed to shield those responsible for taking my father from us. It is profoundly disheartening to witness this ongoing pattern being overlooked, dismissed or, worse, normalized," Ahmad said.

"My father, Ejaz Choudry, wasn't just a victim, he was a father, a brother, a loved one. He wasn't just a name in the news; he was a person with so much more to give, and he absolutely deserved better, so much better."