No charges laid in man’s death in Lake Ontario: SIU

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. – The province’s police watchdog has found there are no reasonable grounds to charge a Niagara Region office in relation to the drowning death of a 24-year-old man last year.

Three investigators and one forensic investigator looked into the circumstances of what happened on Nov. 17, 2014.

The SIU says the man went to a friend’s home in St. Catharines on that day and ingested a quantity of narcotics after which he began to experience delusions and exhibit signs of extreme paranoia couple with incoherent and nonsensical speech. Just after 7 p.m. that evening the man’s screams caught the attention of residents in the area and police were called.

An officer confronted the man and followed him along a pathway toward Lake Ontario. The man refused to stop and eventually got into the lake, remaining within metres of the shoreline at first while the officer tried to get him to return to shore.

The SIU says area residents also called out to the man but the distance between the group on land and the man grew as the tide seemed to carry him further into the lake. He was last seen around 8 p.m. His body was found just after 8:35 p.m. on the banks of Lake Ontario not far from where he had entered the water. An autopsy found he died as a result of drowning and hypothermia.

The acting director of the SIU says he was unable to find fault with the conduct of the officer, who he says considered going into the water to attempt a rescue before ruling it out as too dangerous.