News Release
Man Clinging to Truck Sustained Injury When He Fell Off; SIU Terminates Pickering Investigation
Case Number: 19-TCI-012
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Tony Loparco, has terminated the investigation into an interaction that occurred last month between Toronto Police Service officers and a 31-year-old man in Pickering.
On Sunday, January 13, 2019, several plainclothes Toronto Police Service officers attended a Pickering residence to apprehend a man connected to an investigation they were conducting. While officers attempted to arrest him, the man broke free and fled from the residence. He grabbed onto the passenger side of a pickup truck, and let go while it was in motion. The man fell under the truck and one of the truck’s wheels drove over the man’s leg. The man then jumped inside a taxi and travelled to the Pickering GO station where he was subsequently arrested by officers. The man was transported to hospital where he was diagnosed with a fractured right tibia.
Director Loparco said, “The man’s injury resulted from his decision to escape from the police by clinging to the side of a pickup truck and falling off that truck, resulting in the truck running over the man’s leg. It had nothing to do with the actions of the police. Accordingly, I have terminated the investigation into this incident.”
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