MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — The province’s police watchdog says there are no reasonable grounds to charge a provincial police officer after a man was struck near the eye by a prong from a Taser and partially blinded.
Director Tony Loparco says the incident occurred on June 19, 2012, and was reported to the Special Investigations Unit on July 13, 2015, after the man’s father notified the OPP that his son had lost sight in one eye.
The SIU says the officer responding to a call about an out-of-control man at a home at the Pikangikum First Nation at some point deployed his conducted energy weapon and one of the prongs lodged itself near the man’s left eye.
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The man was taken to a local nursing station, treated, and released, but returned the next day with pain and swelling to his eye, and later underwent surgery in Winnipeg for a detached retina.
Loparco says there was little evidence available to assess the incident and the man has “limited to no recollection” of the event.
He says the SIU was unable to determine if the officer deliberately fired at the man’s face or if the prong lodged itself in his face by accident.