OPP officer dies after shootout
Written by on March 8th, 2010 in Latest News.
Const. Vu Pham, 37, of the Ontario Provincial Police was fatally shot Monday near Seaforth, Ont.
An Ontario Provincial Police officer has died after a shootout Monday morning near Seaforth, Ont., north of London.
Const. Vu Pham, 37, a father of three, died of his injuries in hospital, police said in a news release Monday afternoon.
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of this young courageous officer, who was committed to protecting the citizens of Ontario,” OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said.
A cruiser blocks a road near the scene of a shootout Monday that claimed the life of a 15-year veteran of the OPP and wounded a man about 70 years ancient. (CBC)
Pham’s wife, Heather, and other family were with him when he died, Fantino said at a news conference. Fantino hailed Pham as “one of our heroes.”
Born in Vietnam, Pham was a 15-year member of the OPP, working out of the Bruce County detachment. He had also served in the Cochrane and West Parry Sound detachments.
Earlier, Fantino said police were called at 10:18 a.m. ET to the North Line in Huron County. When the officer attempted to stop a vehicle, he was confronted by an armed man, shot and immediately incapacitated.
“The suspect was also shot in the incident and he too is presently in hospital,” said Fantino, who added that then man was about 70 years ancient.
No other police officers were injured.
Reports suggested the officer exchanged 15 to 20 shots with the unidentified man
Faith Weber, a resident of Brussels, Ont., was a witness to the shooting. She told radio station CKNX that the officer and another man fired at each other across a road.
An Ontario Provincial Police with the Bruce County detachment officer died Monday after a shootout near Seaforth, Ont., north of London. (CBC)“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,” she said. “When I was there, there was probably about five, six shots that already went off, and then we had to go back farther and then there was more shots going off.”
She said the gunfire finished after more police officers arrived at the scene.
“There are still many loose ends to deal with,” Fantino said.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit and the OPP’s criminal investigation branch are investigating the shooting. The SIU investigates cases of serious injury or death involving police and civilians.
The unit has sent six investigators and three forensic investigators to the scene. They are looking into witness accounts and are asking people with information to call 1-800-622-2342.
With the latest death, 104 OPP officers have been killed in the line of duty.
Before Pham, the last OPP officer to die in the line of duty was Const. Alan Hack of the Elgin County detachment. On July 6, 2009, Hack and his partner were trying to arrest a suspect when a transport truck hit their cruiser. Hack died of his injuries in hospital in Newbury, Ont.
Funeral details for Pham will be provided at a later time, Fantino said.
With files from The Canadian Press
