Ontario’s Special Investigation Unit has determined a Hamilton Police officer used lawful force when he shot and wounded a murder suspect who threatened the officer with a knife.
On March 16, 2025, at approximately 3:43 p.m., Hamilton Police responded to 227 Hunter Street East for reports of a stabbing.
In a report, the SIU states HPS officers “encountered the stabbing victim and were told the suspect was inside the apartment.”
The stabbing victim would later succumb to his injuries, and was pronounced deceased shortly thereafter at hospital.
Hamilton Police identified the victim as 74-year-old Charles James Francis Jouvence.
“Officers entered the apartment and located a [30-year-old] man in a bedroom, armed with a knife.”
The SIU states “officers called out to him to come out with his hands up but he remained inside.”
He was behind a closed door.
“When the officers finally forced the door open, the complainant jabbed at them with a knife through the doorway.”
A Hamilton Police officer discharged his firearm, firing six bullets, and struck the accused multiple times.
The accused “was struck multiple times suffering wounds to his right abdomen and left thigh.”
The wounds were not left threatening. He was transported to hospital and recovered following surgery.
“I am satisfied that the [subject officer] shot the Complainant believing it necessary to protect himself from a reasonably apprehended attack,” reads the report signed by SIU Director Joseph Martino.
“I am also satisfied that the shots fired by the [officer] constituted reasonable force in self-defence. The [officer] had cause to believe that his life, and the lives of the other officers with him, were in peril when the complainant thrust the knife he was holding in their direction.
Thirty-year-old David Gomez-Rodriguez is charged with second degree murder.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: July 23, 2025
Last updated: July 23, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version