A Peel police officer was cleared of criminal charges connected to a man’s serious injuries after he was tasered in Mississauga.
The province’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, investigated the incident and concluded there were no grounds for criminal charges.
The incident started outside the Motel 6 on Argentia Road in Mississauga at approximately 2:41 a.m. on April 25 this year, the SIU said.
A Peel Regional Police officer encountered a suspected impaired driver in the parking lot of the motel, the SIU said in its report released today.
The man was lying in the driver’s seat of a Jeep, which was parked with its lights on. The officer approached, knocked on the window and the man was initially unresponsive and then delayed acknowledging the officer when he appeared to wake and sat up in his chair, the report stated.
The man asked the officer what he wanted and the officer said that he wanted to ensure the man was okay. The man said he was fine and walked away from the officer towards the front doors of the motel, ignoring the officer’s requests that he stop, the report stated.
The SIU said the man became combative and punched the officer in the head before fleeing into the Hotel 6 lobby.
The man was attempting to enter his room when the officer tasered him. Several other officers arrived to assist and the man was handcuffed.
Paramedics arrived, sedated the man and transported him to hospital.
Initially, the emergency room physician said he had sustained minor injuries, but a second doctor later diagnosed the him with rhabdomyolysis, the result of the Taser deployment.
Rhabdomyolysis is a rare muscle injury where muscles break down. It is a life-threatening condition that can happen after an injury or excessive exercise without rest, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
The SIU determined that the officer had grounds to reasonably suspect the man was in care and control of a motor vehicle while impaired. When the man resisted detention and struck the officer in the head, he also rendered himself subject to arrest for assault, the SIU.
The officer could not have known where the man was going or whether he was staying at the motel, the SIU said.
“In the circumstances, there was some urgency to taking him into custody. The Complainant had proven a formidable physical challenge and seemed intent on escape,” the report states.
The use of the conducted energy weapon seems a reasonable escalation of force by the officer, the SIU.
“If it worked as designed, it would temporarily incapacitate the Complainant, allowing the officer an opportunity to handcuff him. In essence, that is what occurred,” the report states.
The SIU concluded that there was no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.
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