A 17-year-old Aurora teen who was gunned down in a hail of bullets last October was attempting to lure police and kill them, according to a report issued Thursday by the province’s Special Investigations Unit.
The police watchdog says York Regional Police responded to a 911 call on October 30, 2024, about a break and enter in progress at a home on Downey Circle. The first police officer arrived at the scene around 7:38 p.m. and was met with gunfire coming from the second floor of the home.
The report claims the teen fired “upwards of 20 rounds from a rifle” before leaving the home wearing a tactical vest and holding a shotgun. After being ordered by police to drop his weapon, the teen reportedly told the officer to “shut up,” saying he would kill him before firing several rounds from the shotgun and striking one of the officers in the face.
After chasing the teen across several homes on Downey Circle, police ordered him to drop his weapon. The teen reportedly responded “F**k you,” and fired a shot in the direction of police officers. One officer fired a single round that knocked the teen down, but he got up holding a machete and began moving towards police.
“The subject officials fired multiple rounds, and the [teen] fell again, this time on the roadway. The [teen] rolled to his right in the direction of the machete he had dropped, and was met and struck by a second volley of shots,” says the report.
The teen was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 8 p.m. He was later identified by the family as Mikail Rashid.
Rashid’s mother told CityNews that the boy lived at home with her ex-husband and was alone at the time of the incident.
“I think it was a break-and-enter, but how can he be the break-and-enter person when having dinner in his own house? That doesn’t make sense to me,” said Lala Rukh.
“For whatever reason, it seems the Complainant had set in motion a plan to lure police to his home where it appeared he intended to shoot and kill officers responding to a fake report of a break and enter in progress,” SIU Director Joseph Martino wrote. “He heavily armed himself with firearms and a machete, and had fired multiple rounds at [Witness Officer #1] and other officers by the time he made his way onto the driveway of Residence #2.”
The SIU investigation found that police fired more than 50 rounds at the teen. A post-mortem revealed 10 projectiles, and a fragment were removed from Rashid.
“The number of shots fired by the subject officials was high but did not exceed what was reasonable in the circumstances,” added Martino. “The gunfire occurred in rapid succession over three distinct phases during which the officers were either being shot at or reasonably believed they were about to be fired on.”
Martino concluded that, based on the evidence, there were no reasonable grounds to believe that any officer had committed a criminal offence in connection with the teenager’s death.
