Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a Toronto officer after a man died falling from a balcony during a police interaction on Christmas Day, 2022.
In a decision released on Monday, the Special Investigations Unit director concluded there were “no reasonable grounds” to think the police officer had committed a criminal offence.
In December, the SIU said police went to an apartment building in the north of Toronto around 5:10 a.m. for a disturbance call.
The SIU says Toronto police officers found a man on an apartment balcony and tried to negotiate with him from a neighbouring balcony. The man fell from the balcony at about 6:50 a.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the SIU.
Toronto police said earlier on Twitter that it received reports that a man had broken into an apartment unit in the area before he fell and died.
In his decision, the SIU director said the officer he was tasked with investigating was “lawfully placed,” operating as part of the Toronto police’s emergency task force team. The officer had been trained to negotiate with people in mental health crisis, according to the report.
“The Complainant was offered tea and an opportunity to speak with his family in the apartment if he would step down from the balcony,” the SIU said.
The man, however, was “mostly unengaged” with the officer, the SIU said, clearing the officer of wrongdoing.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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