London police have been cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to injuries sustained by an alleged drug dealer during an arrest in October, according to Ontario's police watchdog.
City police notified the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) around 8:25 p.m. on October 1, roughly three hours after a 23-year-old man suffered fractures and a dislocation of bones in his left foot while trying to flee police.
The SIU said in the late afternoon October 1, officers with the service's Guns Drug Unit were doing a separate investigation at White Oaks Mall when they spotted the man with a person he was under court order to refrain from communicating with.
Shortly after, when police went to take the man into custody for a breach of his conditions, he took off.
Police gave chase as the man jumped several fences into a residential area, losing his shoes in the process, before being apprehended a short distance from the mall.
London police reported that the man was in possession of a loaded handgun and had a quantity of fentanyl.
He was taken to hospital and diagnosed with two fractured metatarsals and a dislocated big toe. Police say he was was also showing symptoms of mental illness.
In a written decision from SIU Director Joseph Martino, he said there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the arresting officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the complainant’s injuries.
Martino added, there is no question of any force used by police in taking the complainant into custody, nor is there any evidence of any unreasonable act or omission on the part of the officers that contributed to the complainant’s injuries.