News Release

News Release

SIU Concludes Death Investigation in Windsor

Case Number: 12-OCD-125   

Mississauga (13 August, 2012) --- The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ian Scott, has concluded that there are no reasonable grounds to charge two Windsor Police Service officers with any criminal offence in relation to the death of a 22-year-old man in May of 2012.

The SIU assigned two investigators and one forensic investigator to probe the circumstances of this incident.  Both subject officers consented to be interviewed by the SIU and provided copies of their duty notes.  In addition, three witness officers and four civilian witnesses were interviewed.  The post mortem report, which was crucial to the outcome of the investigation, was received by the SIU on August 7, 2012.

The SIU investigation found that the following events took place on Thursday, May 3:
• Shortly after 11:00 a.m., the subject officers were dispatched to Jacob Street regarding a man who was acting erratically. 
• When the first subject officer arrived, he was directed into the backyard of a residence where he saw a man wearing only a tee shirt and underpants, on his knees clawing at the grass. He was moaning and sweating profusely.  The officer called an ambulance.  The man lay down on the ground and appeared to lapse into unconsciousness.  The second subject officer arrived.  They rolled the man onto his back and attempted to find a pulse.  They could not find one and began performing CPR on him.  Paramedics arrived, took over the compressions and transported him to Windsor Metropolitan Hospital where he was pronounced deceased shortly after midnight. 
• A post-mortem examination was performed, and the pathologist concluded that the cause of death was acute methamphetamine toxicity associated with a state of excited delirium.   

Director Scott said, “In my view, there is no suggestion of inappropriate behaviour by the two subject officers.  They came upon a man who was clearly in a state of extreme medical distress.  They attempted to assist him by calling an ambulance and then performing CPR on him.  However, he succumbed to the ingestion of a toxic level of methamphetamine, notwithstanding the subject officers’ attempts to assist him.  On the basis of this investigation, the man was the sole author of his own misfortune.”     

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