KAWARTHA LAKES- The province’s Special Investigations Unit has found there are no reasonable grounds to believe that any of the officers involved in the events that culminated in a man’s death in Clarington failed to comport themselves within the limits of the criminal law, leaving no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.
“On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that any of the officers involved in this incident committed a criminal offence in connection with the Complainant’s death.” said SIU Director Joseph Martino. “There is no indication of any force having been directly applied to the Complainant by any police officer, and certainly none in connection with the mortal neck wounds he suffered. Those, the evidence makes clear, were self-inflicted by the Complainant at the end of a police pursuit.”
On January 9, 2022, a 45-year-old man was involved in a crash in Port Hope and left the scene. The man entered the backseat of a pickup truck and ordered the driver, at knifepoint, to operate the vehicle. OPP officers attempted to perform a rolling block of the truck and a spike belt was deployed. The driver hit the spike belt and was subsequently forced off the roadway into a ditch by OPP officers in the area of Highway 115/35.
Police received six calls to 911 with regard to the man and his behaviour leading up to his death. OPP and DRPS officers located the man with knife wounds and administered CPR. He was taken via air ambulance to a hospital in Toronto. The man died of self-inflicted knife wounds according to the SIU.
The file has been closed.
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