News Release
SIU Concludes Investigation into Ottawa Death
Case Number: 07-OCD-004
On January 3, 2007, OPS officers were attempting to negotiate with the man who was armed with a knife. During the incident, he suffered a serious eye injury. He was transported to Ottawa Civic Hospital where he died from his injuries on January 5th.
Four SIU investigators probed the circumstances surrounding the man's death to determine the nature and extent of police involvement. The SIU investigation determined that on January 3rd, the man and his acquaintance got into a taxi at Greenbank and Baseline Roads. The acquaintance was bleeding; he asked the cab driver to take him to a hospital. The cab driver phoned a second cabbie and, in Arabic, asked him to call the police because one of his passengers had a knife.
At the intersection of Merivale Road and Mayview Avenue, the man's acquaintance yelled at the driver to stop the cab. The driver stopped the cab and both men got out and fled on foot, leaving the 25-year-old man seated in the back.
OPS officers arrived and surrounded the taxicab. They could see the man was seated and holding a knife. The officers drew their firearms and surrounded the taxi, yelling at the man to come out and give up the knife. The man did not and stabbed himself in the eye. He was attempting to injure himself again when an OPS officer opened the rear door and used a TASER to immobilize him. Officers then dragged the man out of the cab and transported him to the hospital.
Director Cornish concluded that all the evidence indicated the involved officers did all that could reasonably be expected of them to try to prevent the tragic result in this case.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (municipal, regional and provincial police officers, police officers with the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service) that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must
- consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
- depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid
- publicly report the results of its investigations