SIU clears police officer who punched 17-year-old
The province’s Special Investigations Unit has ruled that a Windsor police officer was being lawful when he punched a 17-year-old high school student twice in the face — breaking the teenager’s nose — during an arrest last year. In a decision published Tuesday, SIU director Tony Loparco found “no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against any involved WPS officer in relation to the arrest of the student.”
SIU described the male student as “disorderly,” and said he refused to leave the school property, “despite being told to numerous times.” The struggle during the arrest resulted in the student suffering what was later diagnosed as a “displaced nasal bone fracture.” “The injuries sustained by the complainant occurred as a direct result of his own non-compliance with the commands of the subject officer,” Loparco wrote in his conclusion.
Loparco noted that along with the student being actively resistant, the boy’s mother — who was present during the incident — committed “a dangerous act” by trying to grab or knock a Taser from the hand of another officer. “In this respect, both the complainant and (his mother) were the authors of their own misfortune, which resulted from the complainant’s refusal to leave the school when legally and properly directed to do so,” Loparco said. Neither the officer, the student, his mother nor the school are named in the SIU’s report. The incident happened on June 7, 2017. Windsor police were called to the school and attended the principal’s office around 8:30 a.m. According to the report, the student was under a one-day suspension due to a “conduct issue.” The student and his mother had gone to the principal’s office to discuss lifting the suspension. However, the principal was away at the time and wasn’t expected to return until the lunch hour. The vice-principal advised the student and his mother to come back later. Until then, the student would have to stay off the property. The student’s mother agreed. The student did not. According to the vice-principal, there had been two prior instances where Windsor police were notified due to this particular student’s refusal to leave school property. The report states that when police arrived at the office on June 7, the student responded to their attempts to communicate by shrugging his shoulders.
The arresting officer asked the suspended student: “Do you think you own the school?” — To which the student replied, “Yes.” The student was informed that he was trespassing and that he would be arrested if he did not leave. He again refused. “De-escalation attempts and commands by both the subject officer and witness officer were completely ineffective,” the report states.
When the officers began the arrest, the teen was initially willing and surrendered his right arm behind his back. But then his mother entered the office in a “very agitated state,” and he immediately became “actively resistant and aggressive.”
What followed was a “short, intense struggle” that lasted about two minutes and spilled into the nearby copy room.
At one point, the second officer tried to use his Taser on the student, but “the deployment was not successful.” This was further complicated by the mother pushing the officer’s arm with enough force to make the officer lose his balance. The first officer then delivered “two closed hand strikes to the complainant’s face which were effective.”
“The (student) fell to the floor on his stomach and, finally, was compliant,” the report states. “Although further attempts at de-escalation by the subject officer would have been preferable, there is no certainty that the complainant would have complied at a later stage with the directions of the subject officer and it was ultimately the decision of the complainant not to comply with the commands of the officer, which culminated in the use of force,” Loparco wrote.