special investigations unit clears ops officer after man stabs himself
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ontario's special investigations unit
ashley fraser / files
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postmedia network
an ottawa police service officer who ordered that tasers and pepper spray be used against a man in mental distress did not commit a criminal offence, the special investigations unit has concluded.
in a decision released may 1, siu director joseph martino said he found no reasonable grounds to believe the unnamed officer committed an offence in connection with a self-inflicted knife wound suffered by the 35-year-old man during the arrest in his car.
the siu is an independent civilian government agency that probes police conduct in incidents involving death and serious injury.
according to the siu report on the incident, ottawa police officers tried to pull over the man, who was behind the wheel of a car, after receiving a call from a woman about a family member in mental distress in the early morning of jan. 3.
the man attempted to flee but his car was boxed in by police at longfields drive, south of cambrian road, at about 12:40 a.m. the man, who said he was infected with spores and fungi, had a knife that he occasionally held to his neck and abdomen. police realized that the man was only a risk to himself, and put their firearms away.
a trained negotiator with the tactical team negotiated with the man to drop the knife, but the man became less responsive to the overtures. at about 4 a.m., tactical officers moved in to apprehend the man under the mental health act, smashing the front door windows and discharging conducted energy weapons at the man and pepper spray into the vehicle.
the man retrieved the knife and inflicted a stab wound to his abdomen. the officers took possession of the knife and removed the man from the car. he was transported to hospital by paramedics and treated for a four-centimetre self-inflicted laceration.
the evidence established that the man was mentally unwell and a clear danger to himself, martino wrote in his decision.
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the officers who gathered around the vehicle on longfields drive and the officer who gave the order directing the tactical officers to move in were within their rights in seeking to take the man into custody under the mental health act, he said.
the negotiations that unfolded in hours after the car was stopped, including in part by a trained negotiator, appear to have been conducted with care and compassion and the decision to rush the vehicle is due deference, said martino. by that time, negotiations had been given a fair chance to succeed but appeared to be going nowhere, and there was concern that the man might harm himself.
the use of tasers and pepper spray was “commensurate with the exigencies of the moment,” martino said.
“it was imperative that the (man) be incapacitated as quickly as possible to prevent the knife from being used to inflict grievous bodily harm or death on himself or the officers. in essence, that is essentially what happened; though the man suffered a knife wound, he escaped the incident without lethal injury.”
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