News Release
No Charges to Issue in Relation to Arrest of Man in Oakville Hotel
Case Number: 20-OCI-041
On February 18, 2020, 911 received a call reporting that a patron of a hotel in Oakville was behaving in a disorderly and destructive fashion, and threatening harm to himself and others in the building. Halton Regional Police Service officers were dispatched to the hotel, and attempts were made to speak with the man. The decision was then taken to force entry into the room. As officers tried to take the man into custody, the man physically resisted. The officers reacted with force of their own – including the deployment of conducted energy weapons by two of the officers – and the man was handcuffed. The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has determined there are no reasonable grounds to believe that any 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