SIU clears Hamilton officer in man’s fatal fall from roof

Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a Hamilton police officer of wrongdoing in the fatal fall of a 45-year-old man last spring.

Hamilton police had been called to a Prospect Street South home shortly after 11 a.m. on April 2 for reports of a naked man on the roof of his residence.

One of the calls was from the man’s wife who thought her husband may have been suffering from cocaine-induced psychosis, the Special Investigations Unit report says.

Police on scene, including negotiators, tried to talk to the man and ask him to come down, but he ignored their requests and shouted profanities, spewing insults and ranting “nonsensically,” the SIU said.

The man climbed onto his neighbour’s roof, where he rocked the chimney until it fell, sending bricks onto another neighbour’s driveway.

Then he jumped toward the third house, landing on a sloped part of the roof and falling off onto the concrete driveway that was littered with bricks.

The 45-year-old was taken to hospital with serious head injuries. He died almost three weeks later on April 21.

SIU director Tony Loparco found that the officer exercised a level of care throughout more than hour at the scene. He said there are no reasonable grounds to charge the officer and the case is closed.