News Release
Charges not Warranted in Relation to Altercation with Man at Kenora Police Detachment
Case Number: 21-PCI-343
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe that an Ontario Provincial Police officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the serious injuries sustained by a 40-year-old man who was in the custody of police in Kenora in October of 2021.
In the late evening of October 12, 2021, officers arrested the man at a home in Kenora in connection with an assault. En route to the police detachment, while in the cruiser, the man threatened the officers with violence. Once at the sally port, the man exited the rear passenger door of the cruiser, walked towards one of the officers, and spat in his face. Other officers immediately intervened and physically engaged the man. While the man was on the floor, an officer delivered a right-knee strike into the right side of the man’s body, and then moved to the left side of the man’s body and delivered another knee strike to the upper body. Following a struggle, the man was lodged in a cell. When the man complained of rib pain the following morning, he was transported to hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures of a left and right-sided rib.
While Director Martino accepted that the man’s fractures were the result of the force used by one of the officers, he determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe that they were attributable to unlawful conduct on the part of the officer. Accordingly, there was no basis for proceeding with criminal charges against the officer.
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
Lisez ce communiqué en français.
Monica Hudon, siu.media@ontario.ca
SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES