OPP officer committed no criminal offence during arrest: SIU

[Michael Jack]

An Ontario Provincial Police officer has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing during a Belleville arrest last summer, the Special Investigations Unit has ruled.

Ontario’s police oversight agency, the SIU handed down the decision Thursday.

The identity of the officer and the complainant were not released publicly.

The SIU decision said in a release there were “no reasonable grounds to believe an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer committed a criminal offence in connection to serious injuries of a 33-year-old man during his arrest in Belleville.”

On Aug. 13 of this year, OPP officers, after consulting Belleville Police Service, sought to take the man into custody on a warrant.

Members of the “OPP Community Street Crime Unit attended the area of North Park Street and College Street East in Belleville, after learning the complainant was in the area. OPP officers located the complainant in the passenger seat of a vehicle parked in front of a residence,” the SIU report stated.

“At 4:02 p.m., the OPP officers engaged the Complainant and he resisted. A struggle ensued and the complainant was extricated from the vehicle.”

The man attempted to flee, climbing over the driver in his vehicle attempting to escape through the front driver’s door.

An officer and the man wrestled, and the officer tossed his firearm.

The subject officer kneed and punched the man several times in the upper body before he was subdued and secured in handcuffs.

Director Joseph Martino found the evidence of the force brought to bear by the police fell short of excessive.

He concluded the man had proven a formidable challenge and there was some urgency to subduing him as quickly as possible given the firearm on the driveway in close proximity.

The man was diagnosed with a punctured lung and right-sided rib fracture.

The full director’s report can be found at https://siu.on.ca/en/directors_report_d ... ?drid=4212.

The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (police officers as well as special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service) that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid publicly report the results of its investigations.

https://www.intelligencer.ca/news/opp-o ... arrest-siu

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