Ontario's police watchdog has determined there are no grounds on which to charge any St. Thomas police officers after a man suffered dog bites and fractured ribs during an arrest.
The Special Investigations Unit was called to St. Thomas after the May 24 incident.
It was around 3:30 p.m. on that day when police got a call from a citizen who said they had been threatened by a man with a hatchet. When an officer arrived at the scene, the man ran through some backyards before stealing a bicycle from a home on Elgin Street and riding it toward Alma College. The man then disappeared into a ravine.
A search of the area that involved the K9 unit was launched and the man was found in a wooded area. An officer told him to come out, but he refused.
According to the SIU, the officer threatened to send in the dog and the man replied, "don’t care, send a dog on me.”
The dog knocked the man to the ground, but the man refused the officer's command to stay there and, instead, he got up again. The dog was sent in a second time and again, knocked the man to the ground. An officer then tried to arrest the man, but was unable to apply handcuffs because the man would not remove his hands from underneath him.
"A single strike to the lower right area was delivered and the Complainant was successfully handcuffed," the SIU said.
When an ambulance arrived to assess the man's dog bites, he complained of pain in his lower right area. An examination at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital led to a diagnosis of hairline fractures of two of his ribs. He also recieved five stiches to close the puncture wounds from the dog bites.
"Based on the information provided to the officers at dispatch, to the effect that the Complainant had brandished a hatchet threateningly at the CW (complaint witness), and the Complainant’s flight from police upon their arrival at the scene, I am satisfied the officers had a lawful basis to seek the Complainant’s arrest," said SIU Director Joseph Martino. "Thereafter, I am unable to reasonably conclude that the officers, including the SO (subject officer), used force that crossed the line into excessive force in effecting the Complainant’s arrest."
Martino said the file is now closed.
