Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has cleared a police officer from wrongdoing after injuring a 66-year-old man’s face during an arrest on Christmas Day.
The SIU’s case surrounded an officer who attended a domestic-related phone call at a residence in the west end of Kingston on Dec. 25 2023.
An SIU news release says officers met the building superintendent at the front door, who escorted officers to an apartment unit. The superintendent did not allow officers into the unit and “continued to obstruct” the entry of officers.
An officer took hold of the man and attempted to arrest him, but he resisted and a struggle ensued, the SIU says. The release states the officer struck the man with his knee, after which the man surrendered his arms and was handcuffed behind the back.
The man was taken into custody where he complained of pain in his eye, the SIU said. The man was taken to hospital where doctors say he suffered a fractured orbital bone under his right eye.
On Tuesday, SIU director Joseph Martino determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe the officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the man’s arrest and injury.
“I am unable to reasonably conclude that the account of excessive force by the subject officer is sufficiently reliable or probable to warrant being put to the test by a court,” Martino wrote in the SIU news release.
“Conversely, the countervailing evidence suggests that the force used by the subject officer – a single knee strike following a period of struggle – was reasonably necessary to overcome the complainant’s resistance and effect his arrest.”
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police that might have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.