WINTHROP, Ont. — A provincial police officer died Monday after being shot when pulling over a vehicle in an incident observers said set off a close-range gunfight between police and a suspect in rural southwestern Ontario.
Const. Vu Pham, 37, was shot and “immediately incapacitated” after 10 a.m. near Winthrop, Ont., about one hour north of London, said Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino.
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of this young brave officer who was committed to protecting the citizens of Ontario,” Fantino said in a statement.
The officer was confronted by an armed suspect when he tried to stop the vehicle, Fantino said at a press conference earlier Monday.
“Officers in close proximity to the scene located the suspect. The suspect was also shot in the incident and he too is presently in hospital,” he said.
The suspect is believed to be in his 70s and charges are pending, said Fantino, who added no other officers were injured in the incident.
Reports said the officer suffered a head injury.
Pham, a 15-year veteran of the force, was a married father of three sons. His wife, Heather, and their sons Tyler, 12, Jordan, 10, and Joshua, 7, were with him when he died, Fantino said.
“Certainly it’s a great loss to the OPP and more importantly to his own family,” said Sgt. Dave Rektor.
It’s up to the family whether Pham will have a full police funeral but the force will work with them to decide what their wishes are, he added.
When asked about the condition of the suspect, he referred calls to the province’s Special Investigations Unit, which is probing the shooting.
The Ontario Provincial Police Association said it was providing support to the family.
Eyewitnesses say 15 to 20 shots were exchanged between an officer and the suspect from across a two-lane rural road.
“The guy (was) laying in the ditch and the police officer was on the other side of the road in the ditch but he was standing up and they were both shooting back and forth at each other,” Faith Weber, of nearby Brussels, Ont., told radio station CKNX.
“When I was there there was probably about five, six shots that already went off, and then we had to move back farther and then there was more shots going off.”
Weber said more police arrived and the gunfire ended.
“After the shooting was done there was six, seven cops over where the guy was laying in the ditch, and he wasn’t moving. I didn’t see him moving at all after that.”
Pham is the 104th Ontario Provincial Police officer killed in the line of duty since the force’s inception 100 years ago. Twenty four, including Pham, were fatally shot and one was fatally stabbed.
Born in Saigon, Pham joined the force in 1995 and has worked in the Cochrane and Parry Sound detachments. He was posted to the Huron County detachment.
Police had shut down the two-lane highway Monday where the shooting took place, an area of farm fields sparsely dotted with homes.
“Obviously I speak for all Ontarians when I say that our thoughts are with this police officer and his family and friends and the broader policing family,” Premier Dalton McGuinty said at the provincial legislature.
“I think it’s an opportunity for all of us just to reflect on how much we count on these men and women every single day to go out there and put it on the line.”
Special Investigations Unit spokeswoman Monica Hudon said OPP officers “became involved in a standoff with a man at 82352 North Line in Huron County.”
“The man was wounded and has been taken to the Victoria Hospital in London for treatment,” Hudon said.
“Six investigators and three forensic investigators are investigating this incident.”
The SIU is a civilian agency that examines incidents involving police and civilians that result in serious injury or death.
Dave Lew, chief of EMS for Huron County, said two vehicles with two paramedics each along with a helicopter and an EMS supervisor were sent to the scene.