TORONTO – Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has cleared two Toronto police officers of any wrongdoing in the death of a man resulting from mistaken identity.
The officers were seeking a man wanted for violating bail conditions last Aug. 1 when they spotted Charles McGillivary, 45, walking along Bloor St.
McGillivary, who was mentally disabled, was out for a walk that evening with his mother but was about a block ahead of her.
In a statement Wednesday, SIU director Ian Scott said McGillivary roughly matched the description of the man the officers sought.
Scott said the officers approached McGillivary, but he didn’t respond to their questions and began to walk quickly away, forcing them to give chase.
He said when the officers tried to make an arrest, there was a brief struggle before McGillivary was wrestled face down on the ground and handcuffed.
Moments later, said Scott, McGillivary went into medical distress, his face turned purple and he lost consciousness.
Officers removed the cuffs, performed chest compressions and called an ambulance, but McGillivary was pronounced dead at Toronto Western Hospital.
Scott said a post-mortem revealed McGillivary had a heart condition and that his struggle with the officers precipitated a fatal cardiac arrhythmia.
He called it a “sad set of circumstances,” but given the evidence gathered from the officers, 23 civilian witnesses, a video recording of the incident and the forensics, Scott says he could find no reasonable grounds to charge the officers.
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