News Release

News Release

SIU Concludes Investigation into Vehicle Injuries Sustained by Man in Mississauga

Case Number: 14-OVI-283   

Mississauga (20 August, 2015) --- The Acting Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Joseph Martino, has concluded that there are no reasonable grounds to charge a Peel Regional Police officer with any criminal offence in relation to the injuries sustained by a 26-year-old man in Mississauga in December of 2014.

The SIU assigned three investigators, two forensic investigators and one collision reconstructionist to probe the circumstances of this incident. As part of the investigation, four civilian witnesses and two witness officers were interviewed. The subject officer provided a copy of his duty notes and consented to an interview with the SIU.

The SIU investigation found that the following events took place on Tuesday, December 16, 2014:

• In the evening hours, the 26-year-old man made telephone calls to his father and to the police suggesting that people were trying to ‘get him’ and that his life was in danger. 
• The subject officer located the man standing at the southwest corner of the Erin Mills Parkway and Burnhamthorpe Road West intersection in Mississauga. The officer pulled up alongside the man in his cruiser and spoke with him through the open passenger side window. It became quickly apparent that the man was in mental distress; he ranted incoherently and asked the officer to kill him. The officer called for assistance and reversed his cruiser when the man started reaching into the cruiser through the passenger window. When the man implored the officer to kill him, the officer responded he would not do so.
• The man stated he would take matters into his own hands by running into traffic. He turned and ran into the southbound lanes of Erin Mills Parkway, and was subsequently struck by the front end of a vehicle travelling south through a green light at moderate speed. 

Acting Director Martino said, “During their brief engagement, the subject officer did what he could to communicate with the man and calm him down. Not knowing exactly what he was dealing with, but sensing the man did not have his mental faculties about him, the officer acted prudently in calling for assistance and reversing away from the man as the man began to reach into the cruiser. It was then that the man ran into traffic. In the circumstances, there was very little if any opportunity for the officer to have done anything to prevent what happened, and there are clearly no reasonable grounds for proceeding with charges in this case.”       

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