Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has ended an investigation into an arrest in Windsor where a 25-year-old man broke his nose.
According to investigators, the Windsor Police Service received a 911 call at around 5:20 a.m. on March 18 for a disturbance at an address on Lauzon Road. A neighbour told police they heard glass smashing in another unit. They believed it was a domestic disturbance.
The caller said they only knew the first name of the woman residing in that unit and did not feel comfortable going to check on the woman themself. The call-taker told them to call back if they heard or saw anything else.
Several minutes later, a police dispatcher announced the call to all police on-duty that a male neighbour heard lots of glass breaking, and confirmed the resident's identity.
The dispatcher also told police officers that they had a history with the woman and her former boyfriend. He had previously been charged with several weapons and mischief-related offences but had been released with conditions to not contact his former girlfriend. He was also known to carry weapons.
Officers arrived and located a male, later identified as the complainant, in the backyard of the unit where he was handcuffed. They believed he was the suspect, the boyfriend of the woman in the unit where the ruckus was heard. He was in fact the person who called 911.
As the man was being escorted to the front of the building, he reportedly turned his head and spit on an officer. As a result, the officer took the man to the ground to avoid being spit on again. As a second officer assisted, the man was punched when he was observed putting his hands in the waistband of his pants. He was also placed in a spit collar.
It was during that time the man suffered an injury to his nose, so once they arrived at the police station, an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital.
In his report, SIU Director Joseph Martino said there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the officers committed a criminal offence in connection with the complainant’s arrest and injury.
"Though they had the wrong person, their mistake was reasonable in the circumstances, particularly as it appears that the complainant identified himself as the former boyfriend at various points during his interaction with police that day," Martino said.
Martino added that police were under the impression that they were dealing with someone who was facing weapons charges and they used a reasonable amount of force after the complainant spit at an officer.
"While it may well be that the complainant’s broken nose was the result of the takedown, there is no basis to proceed with criminal charges in this case against either subject official as I am satisfied they comported themselves lawfully throughout the incident," he concluded.
