Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), said no charges have been laid against a Toronto police officer after a man was seriously injured during an arrest.
In a press release on Friday, the SIU said Director Joseph Martino said he found “no reasonable grounds to believe” that the officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the facial fracture suffered by a 41-year-old man during his January arrest.
According to the SIU, on Jan. 30, officers executed a search warrant at the man’s house on Gamble Avenue and arrested him for alleged drug trafficking.
The SIU said the man “resisted and officers took him to the ground.”
“During the arrest, the subject official delivered an elbow strike to the man’s upper body,” the release reads. “He was handcuffed and taken to the police station.”
The SIU said the next day, the man was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a facial fracture on the right side of his face.
Martino said he found no reasonable grounds to believe the subject official “comported himself other than lawfully in his engagement with the man, leaving no basis for proceeding with criminal charges against the office.”
The SIU is an independent agency that investigates the conduct of officers in incidents that have resulted in death, serious injury, or alleged sexual assault.