News Release
No Criminal Charges to Issue in Relation to Orangeville Arrest of Man
Case Number: 24-PCI-444
In the early afternoon, Ontario Provincial Police officers located a man behind a business in Orangeville. Officers had been looking for him after calls to police reporting that he had threatened staff at a hospital and residence and assaulted two persons in and around a convenience store. The 39-year-old man fled on foot but hadn’t travelled very far when one of the officers deployed a conducted energy weapon, causing the man to fall and strike his head and right shoulder on the pavement. After a struggle, in which the officer discharged his CEW several more times, the man was handcuffed and taken into custody. He was transported to hospital and diagnosed with fractures of the right jawbone and clavicle, an epidural hematoma, and a left temporal lobe hemorrhagic contusion. On his assessment of the evidence, SIU Director Joseph Martino determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe that an officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the man’s arrest and injuries.
Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision): https://www.siu.on.ca/en/directors_reports.php.
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
Lisez ce communiqué en français.
Kristy Denette, siu.media@ontario.ca
SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES