Charges stayed against police officers in blast

In a surprise move, the Crown stayed charges against three Ottawa police officers Thursday, finding there was no reasonable prospect of convicting them, given their roles in a June 2014 training exercise blast.

Two paramedics were badly burned by a massive fireball when an explosive device used to force entry was filled with windshield washer fluid instead of water during a joint Ottawa Police Service (OPS) and RCMP exercise at a vacant house on March Road.

Prosecutor Philip Perlmutter, who reviewed the charges laid by the Special Investigations Unit, told Ontario Court Justice Ann Alder that they should be stayed instead of proceeding.

His reasons revealed contradictions in evidence from the forces involved, apparent stonewalling by the RCMP and the conclusion that Ottawa police practice and training was “deficient and unsafe.”

Acting Staff-Sgt. Marty Rukavina, Const. Serge Clement and Const. Carl Grimard had been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm and breach of duty to use reasonable care while handling explosives.

To convict, the Crown would have had to prove the officers were aware of the danger of using wiper fluid and gave no thought to the consequences, the prosecutor told the justice.

The officers were following accepted practice and training and were not warned of the danger of the practice — which hasn’t resulted in any known history of similar fireballs, court heard.

The prosecutor outlined what happened at the training exercise on June 18, 2014, and what occurred during the year-long SIU investigation.

Rukavina was the commander of the OPS tactical team and the scene commander for the exercise, which involved using an explosive device to force entry to a residence.

During the exercise, police officers were assigned to enter the residence and locate and free the “hostages” — other officers and paramedics inside. They used a “hydra cut device” — a frame of plastic piping filled with liquid to which an explosive charge is attached. When it’s detonated against a door, the force of the liquid produces a hole through which police can enter.

Rukavina was the scene commander as Clement and Grimard filled the device with wiper fluid and it was attached to a pocket door in the house’s kitchen on the first floor. Paramedics Supt. Craig MacInnes and Reid Purdy were six to 10 feet away at the top of a set of stairs to the second floor. The flammable liquid ignited and created a “massive fireball” that rolled up the stairs, which acted as a chimney, leaving the two men badly burned. Other people on the scene were less seriously hurt.

It wouldn’t have happened if the device had been filled with water, Perlmutter said.

The owner of the company that makes the hydra cut device, a former police explosives trainer, told the SIU that only water should be used, but the device did not come with instructions or warning labels because they would only be used by trained police and military. Both were added to the product after the blast.

The Ministry of Labour also investigated and laid charges against the Ottawa Police Services Board and the City of Ottawa. Charges against the city have since been stayed, Perlmutter said.