Criminal charges will not be laid against a London police officer who fired six non-lethal projectiles at a double stabbing suspect at an east-end apartment building back in March.
In a report released on Monday, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) found the officer's use of force during the arrest was "reasonably necessary."
Police were called about a fight at the apartment in the area of Clarke Road and Trafalgar Street around 12:30 a.m. on March 13. When officers arrived on scene they found two people with stab wounds, including the suspect's mother. A 29-year-old man, armed with two butcher knives, was standing in the hallway yelling at police to "just shoot me," the SIU said.
Police ordered the man to drop the knives, but he refused and began moving toward officers. It was at this time a taser was used to try to stop the man, when it didn't work another officer fired an anti-riot weapon, a firearm that fires non-lethal blunt impact projectiles, six times. That also did not stop the man who was tasered another time knocking him onto the ground. A shield was then used to pin the man to the floor and he was tasered a third time before officers were finally able to handcuff him, according to the SIU.
The man was taken to hospital were he was diagnosed with a fractured arm, an injury the SIU determined was sustained before police arrived. The SIU says the injury was caused by a neighbour trying to defend themselves with a baseball bat.
The two people stabbed before police arrived were taken to hospital with abdominal injuries.
The SIU assigned three investigators and one forensic investigator to the case. While the 29-year-old man, referred to by investigators as the "complainant" was cooperative he eventually stopped communicating and did not authorize the release of his medical records to the SIU.
"The force used to take the Complainant into custody, I am satisfied, was no more than was reasonably necessary," SIU Director Joseph Martino, wrote in his report. "The complainant had refused to drop the knife he held in each hand, and had advanced towards the officers in threatening fashion. He clearly constituted a risk of grievous bodily harm or death."
He added that the officers did not act with excess when using the less-lethal weapons at their disposal when confronting what he deemed as a "lethal risk".
"Accordingly, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case. The file is closed," Martino concluded.
