The Special Investigations Unit says an officer was not at fault for a woman’s injuries after she fell off an ambulance bay at Peterborough Regional Health Centre earlier this month.
Joseph Martino, director of the SIU, issued a release Tuesday declaring that the investigation into the fall had been terminated. The SIU investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
According to Martino’s report, on Feb. 4, a 28-year-old woman was at the Hunter Street Bridge with the intention of jumping. Peterborough Police Service officers attended and were successful in removing the woman from the bridge and transporting her to the hospital.
Martino’s report says after the woman was discharged from the hospital, she went out onto the roof of the ambulance bay but security personnel were able to convince her to come off the roof.
However, Martino said, the woman returned to the roof for a second time. Police were dispatched and one of the officers attempted to engage in dialogue with the woman.
“Shortly thereafter, the woman pushed herself from the roof and landed in a mound of snow and ice,” Martino stated. “She suffered a fractured right ankle as a result of the fall.”
Martino said based on the investigation, there are no grounds to believe the officer who attempted to engage with the woman committed any criminal offence in connection to her injuries.
“The officer had just arrived and asked the woman to safely descend from the rooftop when the woman fell from the roof of her own volition,” Martino stated. “In the circumstances, as there is patently nothing to investigate as far as any potential criminal liability on the part of the police is concerned, the investigation is hereby discontinued and the file is closed.”
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