By Chad Ingram

The Ontario Special Investigations Unit has confirmed the identity of the 73-year-old man fatally shot by OPP officers following an incident at the Minden Valu-Mart on July 15 as Leslie Hegedus.

On the morning of July 15, a man went to enter the grocery store and when it was requested he wear a face mask to enter, assaulted an employee before using his vehicle to ram vehicles in the store’s parking lot, and speeding away, the owner of the store told the Echo. Police used the licence plate on his vehicle to track him to his residence near Drag Lake.

“Outside the residence, there was an interaction with the man and two officers discharged their firearms,” read a press release from the SIU. “The man was struck. He was transported to hospital where he was pronounced deceased at 11:47 a.m.”

On Aug. 27, the SIU confirmed Hegedus’s identity.  

“The SIU had submitted a DNA sample to the Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS) to establish a possible next-of-kin for Mr. Hegedus, and the results were received this week,” reads a release. “The SIU’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Hegedus is ongoing. So far, five civilian witnesses and four witness officers were interviewed. Another officer was designated as a witness officer, but investigators only requested the notes. Both officers who were designated as subject officers consented to interviews and submitted their notes. A post-mortem was conducted on July 17 and the SIU is in possession of those results.

“A firearm that was collected at the scene as well as the firearms of the two subject officers were sent to the CFS for analysis, and investigators are awaiting those results.”