SIU says no charges against Thunder Bay police in death of man involved in fatal domestic dispute
Police took proper steps to ensure safety in death of man believed responsible for 'gruesome crime'
Thunder Bay police 'acted lawfully and reasonably' in response to a man who had barricaded himself in a car after a domestic dispute in which an 8-year-old girl was killed and her mother was injured, according to Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
The 38-year-old died in hospital after a four-hour stand-off with police on August 11, 2014.
The SIU decision released on Friday said police made the appropriate decisions to ensure public safety while remaining mindful of the man's well-being.
Police had information that the man had "perpetrated a gruesome crime in the apartment of his estranged girlfriend, assaulting her and killing her eight-year-old daughter at 3 a.m," SIU director Tony Loparco wrote in the decision.
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A suspicious vehicle had been parked outside a Wharton Road residence since at least 3:45 a.m. that morning, its windows fogged in the rain, preventing police from seeing inside when they arrived on scene later that morning, the SIU report said.
"A mass of police officers" surrounded the vehicle and attempted to negotiate with the man who would honk the horn in response to questions. But police couldn't be sure if the man was alone or whether he was armed, Loparco wrote.
When the man rolled down his window, an officer noticed he was bleeding from the neck and at about 11:30 a.m. an order was given to "assault the man's vehicle."
"Given what they knew and, as importantly, what they did not know, it would have been imprudent to rush the man's vehicle any sooner," Laparco said.
"Distraction devices" were used and one officer smashed out a back door in the car to confirm the man was alone.
The man didn't resist when police pulled him out of the car and the SIU report said he had self-inflicted cuts to his wrists, arms and neck and was bleeding profusely.
"He was handcuffed behind his back and first aid was rendered," the report said. The man was taken to hospital where he died in surgery.
Laparco said he saw nothing "in the conduct of the officers that executed the takedown, with which to take issue,"
The SIU assigned four officers to probe the circumstances of the death and interviewed five witness officers and one civilian witness. The officer who was the subject of the investigation did not participate in the interview process and declined to provide a copy of his duty notes, as is his legal right.