News Release
SIU Concludes Investigation into Woman’s Fall from Bedroom Balcony in Listowel
Case Number: 23-PCI-119
In the evening of April 19, 2023, Ontario Provincial Police officers were dispatched to an apartment building in Listowel for a domestic disturbance call. One of the involved individuals – a 40-year-old woman – was wanted by police for breaching the terms of a judicial release order. She had removed a monitoring device from her person. When no one answered their knocks on the door, the officers entered an apartment unit and eventually located the woman hiding in a closet. She stepped out from the closet at the officers’ request and proceeded to walk past them out of the room. The officers followed her into an adjacent bedroom as she made her way onto a balcony and jumped. The woman was taken to hospital and diagnosed with multiple fractures. On his assessment of the evidence, SIU Director Joseph Martino determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe that an officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the woman’s fall. There was no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case, and the file has been closed.
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.
Kristy Denette, siu.media@ontario.ca
SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES