News Release
SIU Concludes Investigation into Injuries Sustained by Man in Kawartha Lakes
Case Number: 12-PCI-257
Mississauga (5 November, 2012) --- The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ian Scott, has concluded that there are no reasonable grounds to charge an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer with the Kawartha Lakes detachment with any criminal offence in relation to the injuries sustained by a 36-year-old man in September of 2012.
The SIU assigned three investigators and two forensic investigators to probe the circumstances of this incident. The SIU interviewed five witness officers and two civilian witnesses. The subject officer provided an interview but did not supply a copy of his duty notes to the SIU, as is his legal right.
The SIU investigation found that the following events took place on Tuesday, September 4:
• In the early afternoon hours, the subject officer was dispatched to an address in Kawartha Lakes to initiate negotiations with a man who was holding his former common law spouse hostage.
• The subject officer, a trained negotiator, arrived on the scene and was made aware that firearms may have been present.
• The subject officer entered the kitchen with the assistance of the OPP Tactical Response Unit (TRU) and spoke to both the man and the woman who were in a nearby bedroom with the door closed.
• The subject officer could see blood in the hallway. There was a period of negotiation between the subject officer and the man in which the officer attempted to convince the man to give himself up.
• When the woman yelled out, “No, guys get in here!”, the TRU team breached the door and deployed their Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs) four times on the man. The officers detained him by means of plastic ties restraining his wrists behind his back.
• The subject officer attended to the woman and freed her from bed sheet ties that were restraining her to a bed.
• The man had numerous cuts to his body. According to the woman, all of these wounds were self-inflicted before any officers entered the room.
• He was initially treated by a doctor at the scene and then transported to Ross Memorial Hospital.
Director Scott said, “In my view, no involved officer did anything wrong with respect to this incident. The man had created this crisis by forcibly confining his former common law spouse. During the confinement, he inflicted numerous knife cuts on himself due to no fault of the involved officers. The deployment of CEWs against him was reasonable given the imminent risk of danger he represented to both himself and to his former common law wife. In any event, it does not appear the deployment of the CEWs and any related force used to subdue him caused injuries to the man.”
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