There is no evidence the arm fracture of a man arrested in Tillsonburg was caused by police, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has ruled.
The 31-year-old man was arrested on Oct. 30, 2016, after OPP officers were called to a downtown coffee shop. A few hours later, while in a holding cell, he complained about a pain in his arm, and was taken to hospital.
According to the SIU, the man had previously broken the arm in a fight with a security guard at a hospital, as he was being arrested for trespassing for refusing to leave the hospital.
The SIU found that the officers who dealt with the man in Tillsonburg were aware of the man’s injury – in part because his arm was in a sling – and tried not to aggravate it.
SIU investigators talked to a doctor from another hospital, who told them that the chain of events involved multiple opportunities for the arm to be displaced, only one of which could have seen police playing even a minor role.
“There is no evidence … that the (officers) used any force whatsoever,” SIU director Tony Loparco said in clearing the officers of wrongdoing.
