SIU clears regional police in 2016 death

KITCHENER — The province’s Special Investigations Unit has cleared Waterloo Regional Police of any wrongdoing in the death of a 37-year-old Kitchener man last year.

Police had been called to a residence in the area of Lancaster Street West and Bridgeport Road East on Jan. 30, 2016, to assist paramedics with a potential drug overdose case.

A toxicology report, the SIU says, determined the man’s death was caused by acute toxicity of methamphetamine.

Police officers had assisted paramedics in helping move the man from his bed to a medical chair for transport to hospital. The man dove off the chair and landed back on the mattress, the SIU report said.

Officers also provided assistance to paramedics, the report said, by holding the man’s legs so a sedative could be administered.

When the man placed an object in his mouth and began chewing, one officer held the man’s right bicep to keep his arm down. Another officer, at the request of paramedics, held onto the man’s shoulders.

Within minutes, the man lost all vital signs. He was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

An autopsy showed there was no trauma to account for the man’s death and no anatomical cause of death.

SIU director Tony Loparco determined there are no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against any regional police officer in connection with the case, according to a news release,

“There is no evidence that any of the WRPS officers who had contact with the man while he was alive in any way contributed to his death,” Loparco said in the release.

The SIU, a civilian agency independent of police, investigates incidents involving police and civilians where there is a death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.