Ontario’s police watchdog agency says it found no reason to lay criminal charges against an Ottawa Police Service officer in connection with a January incident in which the nose of a 32-year-old man was fractured during his arrest.
A Special Investigations Unit report posted Tuesday evening said director Joseph Martino was satisfied that the evidence did not establish reasonable grounds to believe the man had been subjected to unlawful force.
The incident occurred early on Jan. 21, 2025, when police were called about a man who was in possession of a knife and had broken into the residence of a woman near Brant Street and McArthur Avenue in the city’s east end.
The SIU’s summary of the case said that, upon hearing the man and woman yelling in a bedroom, the officer kicked open the door. The man was removed and forced to the floor in a hallway before being struck once or twice in the face and handcuffed.
He was then transported to hospital, where the fractured nose was diagnosed.
It was the second time that morning police had been dispatched to the woman’s residence. Several hours earlier, the woman had requested that officers attend to remove the man from her apartment after they quarreled. On that occasion, the man left with the attending officers without incident, the SIU reported.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police officers, special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
