Officers cleared after nose broken during arrest

The province’s Special Investigations Unit has determined officers did nothing wrong in the handling of a domestic violence suspect who suffered a broken nose during his arrest in Windsor.

“The force in question — that required to subdue and control the Complainant — occurred only after the Complainant had made it clear he would not be arrested willingly and continued to violently resist,” SIU director Joseph Martino wrote in the report.

“While it is regrettable that the arrest appears to have caused the Complainant’s nasal injury, I am unable to reasonably conclude on the evidence that the actions of the officers were excessive in the circumstances.”

The SIU is an arm’s length organization that probes incidents of serious injury, death or sexual assault involving police officers.

A report from the SIU states members of the provincial Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement (ROPE) squad were doing surveillance near Park Street West and Janette Avenue on Sept. 11, 2019.

Around 11:20 a.m., an officer saw an unrelated incident which he believed to be a case of domestic violence. The SIU said the officer saw a woman run past the front of his unmarked cruiser with a man following behind. The man grabbed the woman and pulled her.

When the man became “assaultive,” the officer radioed for help and said he was going to intervene.

The officer and the 25-year-old man got into a struggle and ended up on the ground fighting. Three other ROPE squad members showed up to help. Some of the officers used “compliance strikes” to get the man under control, according to the SIU report. During the arrest, the man suffered a broken nose.

After an investigation that included reviewing surveillance video along with interviewing witnesses, the complainant and the woman, the SIU has determined there is no reason to lay charges against the officers.

“I am satisfied that there are no reasonable grounds to believe the officers transgressed the limits of the criminal law at any point,” Martino wrote in the report.

“Accordingly, there is no basis to proceed with criminal charges.”