Ontario's police watchdog has dropped an investigation involving a London man who jumped from a second storey window during a police standoff last month.
The Special Investigations Unit began investigating after the June 17 incident. London police were called to a home in the area of Quebec St. and Dundas St. in regard to a domestic situation around 5:45pm. When officers arrived, a 34-year-old man barricaded himself in the second-floor unit.
A police negotiator talked to the man by phone for approximately forty minutes before the man climbed out a window and onto a first-floor overhang. The man then jumped from the roof to the ground below. He was taken to hospital with a broken ankle.
“The injury to the man occurred as a result of his own actions when he jumped off the second-floor roof of his residence. Further, nothing that was said to him influenced his decision to jump nor were there any police officers near him at that time," said SIU Director Tony Loparco. "Accordingly, I have terminated the investigation into this incident.”
Loparco also ended an investigation Thursday involving St. Thomas police after the injured man in the case refused to cooperate with investigators.
St. Thomas police arrested a 26-year-old man on outstanding warrants at a home on Balaclava St. on May 23. While at the police station the man complained of a sore eye and was taken to hospital. He was diagnosed with a fractured orbital bone.
SIU investigators met with the man and his lawyer at the Elgin County courthouse where he indicated he did not want the incident investigated.
“Without the medical records, which we cannot obtain without his consent, there is no way to determine the extent of the injury or how it was sustained. As the man refused to participate in the SIU’s investigation, I have terminated the investigation into this incident,” said Loparco.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.