On Nov. 11, 2024, Ontario’s policing oversight body, the Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, reported that a Hamilton police officer and another man were injured after an “exchange of gunfire.” But this later turned out to be false. There were two police officers, both of whom fired a barrage of reportedly 24 bullets that struck Erixon Kabera several times, killing him, and injuring one of the other officers.

I’ve kept up with the subsequent reporting on this incident, and I constantly find myself in awe of the extent to which the Hamilton Police Service and the SIU projected a degree of normality in the face of this calamity. This was the response of an SIU spokesperson, commenting on the agency’s retraction of an earlier statement about an “exchange of gunfire,” as quoted in a CTV News story:

“Based on the information that the SIU initially had, a news release was issued with preliminary details,” [SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon] said. “As the investigation proceeded and as further information came to light, we made it a priority to transparently release that updated information as quickly as possible via email, social media and our website.”

In this quote from a CBC story, Kabera’s family said in a statement: “We find that reversal of crucial facts, a full day after telling the entire world otherwise and painting an image of violence for our very own, to be deeply outrageous and unnerving.”

In a quote from a CP24 story, a Hamilton MP and a Hamilton member of the provincial parliament asked: “Why did the Chief of Police allow false information to be released about Erixon carrying a weapon? Why was the Chief of Police so quick to highlight the gun-related injuries to his officers, when according to the SIU report, Erixon did not shoot at police?”