Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a London police officer of criminal wrongdoing in connection with a vehicle pursuit late last year that ended with a rollover crash that seriously injured two people.
The crash occurred around 2:15 p.m. on Oct. 8 in the area of White Oak Road and Westminster Drive, minutes after police called off a pursuit involving the vehicle, the Special Investigation Unit’s report, released Friday, states.
Officers had been called to the scene at the South London Community Centre at 1119 Jalna Blvd. around 2 p.m. for reports of two men who were trying to steal items out of a vehicle. One suspect reportedly had a hammer, while the other a knife and was allegedly lunging at people.
Two officers, including the subject officer at the centre of the probe, responded to the scene, however by the time they got there the two suspects had already fled in a pickup truck along with a third individual, later identified by police as an 18-year-old woman, the SIU report states.
Police tracked the truck down nearby, tailing it as it traveled south along Wellington Road, to Exeter Road, to Meg Drive, and then west onto Jalna, where it stopped at a stop sign at Earnest Avenue, according to the SIU.
It was at the intersection that police tried and failed to box in the truck and take the suspects into custody. One officer placed their vehicle in front of the truck, while the subject officer drove up toward the rear of the pickup, according to the SIU.
“The GMC Sierra began to ram the vehicles in front and behind it, creating enough space to escape the roadblock. (Witness officer No.1’s) cruiser was damaged enough that it was unable to continue past the intersection. The (subject officer) chased after the pickup truck,” the report reads.
The subject officer pursued the truck west down Earnest to Chalkstone Drive, and then west down Exeter, at one point reaching a maximum speed of 112 km/h. Both vehicles then turned south onto White Oak Road, however, the pursuit was called off seconds later. In all, the pursuit lasted about 30 seconds.
The truck continued driving south down White Oak Road where it blew through a stop sign at Dingman Drive, crossed over the Hwy. 402 overpass, and lost control at a bend in the road just before Westminster Drive, the SIU report says.
The vehicle, traveling between 142 and 161 km/h, slid out of control and crossed the centre lane, left the roadway, became airborne, and barrel-rolled before coming to a stop on the southeast side of the roadway, the report says.
Two of the truck’s occupants, a 23-year-old man and a 31-year-old man were thrown from the vehicle, with one suffering a serious brain injury. Due to his injuries, the SIU was unable to interview him for the investigation.
The other man who was ejected sustained several injuries, including multiple fractures, while the female passenger in the vehicle escaped serious injury, the SIU says.
All three would later be charged with several offences, including armed robbery.
As part of the investigation, the SIU says 12 people were interviewed, including one of the two men injured, along with eight civilian witnesses and three witness officers. The subject officer declined to be interviewed, as was his legal right, but his notes were reviewed.
In his decision, SIU Director Joseph Martino writes that he saw no reasonable grounds to believe the subject officer committed a criminal offence in relation to the pursuit and crash, namely dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
That offence, he writes, is based, in part, “on conduct that amounts to a marked departure from the level of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in the circumstances.”
“In the instant case, the issue is whether there was any want of care on the part of the (subject officer) that contributed to the collision and/or was sufficiently egregious to attract criminal sanction. In my view, there was not,” Martino says.
“I am unable to reasonably conclude that the (subject officer), in the course of an active engagement with the GMC Sierra over about 1.5 kilometres, transgressed the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law.”
The full SIU report, and Martino’s decision, can be read here.
It’s the third time this month, and the second time this week, that the SIU has cleared London police in relation to an investigation.
On Wednesday, the agency cleared a London police officer in connection with the February death of a 24-year-old man of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the city’s Greenway Park.
Earlier this month, the SIU cleared four officers after a 34-year-old man suffered a fractured right finger after being arrested in January.