Ian Scott, director of Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU), has concluded there are no reasonable grounds to believe an Orangeville Police Service (OPS) officer committed a criminal offence in relation to the firearm death of Hugh Ferguson, who took his own life after fatally shooting his wife Heidi on Sept. 12.

The SIU assigned three investigators and two forensic investigators to probe the circumstances of this incident. The investigation determined that shortly after midnight, OPS officers attended at a residence in Orangeville after learning that 39-yearold Heidi Ferguson had been shot. She was airlifted to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto where she was pronounced dead. Meanwhile, the subject officer was dispatched to a residence in Camilla to assist in finding 42-yearold Hugh Ferguson, suspected in the shooting death of his wife. The officer was maintaining a surveillance position outside the residence when he heard a single gunshot from inside the house at 1:06 a.m.

The subject officer remained outside the house, while the Ontario Provincial Police Tactics and Rescue Unit entered the residence. In the master bedroom, they found Mr. Ferguson deceased with a gunshot wound to his chest.

"A handgun was found on the bed and a handwritten note that could be construed as a suicide note was found in the kitchen," Mr. Scott said. "By all accounts, Mr. Ferguson committed suicide on his own accord and the subject officer was not involved in any way in the decedent's decision or action to end his own life."