News Release

News Release

No Charges Against Ottawa Police Officer After Man Struck by Cruiser in Merivale Mall Parking Lot

Case Number: 21-OVI-361   

Other News Releases Related to Case 21-OVI-361

SIU Investigating Serious Injury Suffered by Man in Ottawa Police Officer Involved Collision
Update: SIU Appeals for Witnesses to Ottawa Police Officer Involved Collision

Mississauga, ON (23 February, 2022) ---
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe that an Ottawa Police Service officer committed a criminal offence in connection with internal head injury suffered by a 26-year-old man in Ottawa after he was struck by a cruiser last October.

On October 26, 2021, an officer en route to an emergency call for an armed robbery in progress struck a man in the parking lot of Merivale Mall in Nepean.

Director Martino said that while it remained unclear why neither the subject official nor the man appear to have taken any steps to avoid the collision, the collision was at most a momentary lapse of attention by the official and -- as the case law makes clear -- not enough to transgress the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law.  Accordingly, the file has been closed.
      
Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision): 


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

Lisez ce communiqué en français.

Kristy Denette, siu.media@ontario.ca
SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES