TORONTO (CBC) - A Toronto police officer who fired three shots at a bank robbery suspect earlier this year, did not commit any criminal offence, according to Ontario's Special Investigations Unit.

The unnamed officer fired at the robbery suspect as he left a Royal Bank branch on Sheppard Avenue West, near Markham Road, on March 25.

The suspect said he was armed with a bomb which was controlled by a hand-held remote control device.

When the man left the bank and tried to escape, he ignored police commands to put down the device and surrender. Instead, he walked straight at one of the police officers stationed outside.

According to SIU investigators, the officer fired three rapid shots which hit, but did not kill, the suspect.

"As the incident unfolded, there would have been no way for the subject officer to have known that the bomb was not real; indeed, given the information that the officer possessed it would have been unwise for him to have assumed that the bomb was part of a hoax," SIU director James Cornish said in a prepared statement.

Investigators found the bomb was fake but "there was no reason for the officer to have believed anything but that the bomb was real," Cornish said.

"The subjective fear for the lives and safety of himself and others was honestly held and objectively grounded. In my view, the officer's choice to resort to potentially lethal force can't fairly be characterized as an unreasonable one."

The SIU is called in to investigate any serious injury involving police forces in Ontario.

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