Ontario's police watchdog has cleared an OPP officer of any wrongdoing in an arrest that saw a man suffer a broken collarbone.
The SIU began an investigation after the incident in April of last year. According to the SIU report, Perth OPP got a call just after midnight on April 25, 2017 about a suspected impaired driver in a Chevy Tahoe in Mitchell. An officer pulled the Tahoe over on Highway 23 and parked his cruiser behind the Tahoe. A second officer came to the scene and parked in front of the Tahoe to prevent an escape. However, after refusing to open his window, the driver reversed into the first cruiser and then drove toward the second cruiser and the second officer.
Fearing for the second officer's life, the first officer fired his gun at the Tahoe as it fled northbound on Highway 23. Because they had already identified the driver, the officers did not chase him.
Several hours later, the Tahoe was spotted heading south on Highway 7 south of Stratford. An officer followed the Tahoe at a distance of about 400 metres, but lost it in the area of Nine Mile Road. Another officer spotted the Tahoe on Nine Mile Road and pulled his cruiser across the road to block its path. However, the driver of the Tahoe went into the ditch to go around the cruiser before heading south on Clarke Road. Another officer put out a spike belt on Clarke Road and Eight Mile Road, but again, the Tahoe avoided police by driving onto the shoulder and around the spike belt.
Police then attempted a rolling block of the Tahoe on Clarke Road, which led to the driver turning into the driveway of a business. The Tahoe then hit a tree and the driver ran away. The subject officer chased the man and used a Taser to bring him to the ground. The officer put his knee on the man's back as he brought his arm around in order to apply handcuffs as the man struggled.
"The paramedic records confirm that the Complainant admitted to them that he had consumed alcohol, methadone, cocaine and crystal meth," the SIU report said.
SIU Director Tony Loparco determined that none of the officers involved in the incident acted in an illegal way.
"With respect to the amount of force used by the officers in their attempts to apprehend and subdue the complainant, I find that their behaviour was more than justified in the circumstances and that they used no more force than necessary to apprehend, arrest, and handcuff the complainant who was clearly intent on going to great and drastic lengths to avoid being arrested," he said. "Following the foot pursuit of the complainant, I find that the SO’s actions in tackling the complainant to the ground and delivering one knee strike to his right side in order to get him to give up his hands to be no more than was required to finally stop and handcuff the complainant who continued to fight and resist. I also find that it is more than likely that the complainant suffered his injury when, while fleeing on foot from police, he fell over the fence and landed heavily on his left shoulder and head area, as he opined at the hospital; however, even if it were caused by the SO taking him to the ground and landing on top of him, I cannot find that to have been an excessive use of force."