The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has concluded its investigation into an incident in Listowel that left a woman seriously hurt after she jumped from a balcony during her arrest.
Just before 9 p.m. on April 13, 2023, members of the Perth County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responded to a disturbance at an apartment building in the area of Main Street East and Wallace Avenue North.
When officers arrived, they learned one of the suspects, a 40-year-old woman, was in breach of the terms of her release order, as she had removed a monitoring device from her person, the SIU said.
Further investigation revealed that the woman had also been previously banned from the building.
Police entered the unit after they received no answer after knocking several times. The woman in question was then found hiding inside a closet.
Without warning, the SIU said the woman took off from the closet and into another room. She then entered the outdoor balcony and jumped from it. The woman suffered several fractures in the fall.
On Friday, SIU Director Joseph Martino ended the investigation into the incident, clearing the responding OPP officer of any negligence in the matter.
“The officer was in the lawful execution of her duty as she responded to an address to investigate a call for service involving a domestic disturbance,” Martino stated in his analysis. “Regrettably, before either officer could conclude their investigation, the [woman] moved towards a bedroom balcony where she scaled the railing and jumped. There was very little opportunity for either officer to process what the Complainant was doing, much less to take any steps to prevent her from jumping.”
The file has since been closed.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police regarding incidents that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
