Ontario’s police watchdog has found “no reasonable grounds” to believe an OPP officer committed a criminal offence after a 30-year-old man was struck and seriously injured by an unmarked police vehicle in Innisfil several months ago.
According to the province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), officers were executing numerous Controlled Drugs and Substances Act warrants in the area on July 19. After observing an undercover drug transaction shortly before 11:30 a.m., they attempted to arrest the man. He apparently fled the scene in his Mitsubishi Outlander, circumvented a police blockade, and travelled several more kilometres through the south end of Barrie and the north end of Innisfil. When officers attempted another stop on Commerce Gate in Innisfil, the suspect veered into a ditch and crashed the Mitsubishi into a hydro pole; as he tried to flee on foot, he was struck in the Innisfil Heights Crescent and Commerce Park Drive area by a grey, unmarked Ford F-150 pickup truck, which was being used as an OPP surveillance vehicle.
“Based on the evidence gathered, the man would have only been briefly visible before the officer struck him and it was not at all clear that the collision was avoidable,” SIU director Joseph Martino said in a report on the matter. “The Complainant ran between two stopped or nearly stopped police vehicles. As the Complainant emerged … an eastbound police Ford F-150 that was (travelling) about 30 km/h collided with a running Complainant.”
The suspect was transported to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie, where he was diagnosed with multiple fractures; his condition was said to be life-threatening.
“The Complainant suffered serious injuries, including, reportedly, a brain injury and deafness in his left ear,” Martino wrote.
This suspect was questioned by SIU officials in August. As was his legal right, the officer involved did not agree to be interviewed or release his notes.
“The issue is whether there was a want of care in the manner in which the (officer) operated his vehicle, sufficiently egregious to attract criminal sanction, that caused or contributed to the collision,” Martino said. “In my view, there was not.”
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person. Where warranted, the organization has the power to lay criminal charges against police officials.
For more on the SIU, visit siu.on.ca.
