SIU clears officer who inadvertently ran over man with police SUV

The provincial police watchdog has cleared a Brantford police officer of any wrongdoing after he ran over a man who was lying in a road in front of his SUV.

The incident occurred because the officer had no idea the man was there, said Joseph Martino, the interim director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), in his decision.

"The evidence establishes that the complainant, for reasons relating to his inebriation and/or mental health issues at the time, intentionally lay down in front of the [officer's] SUV in the darkness and did not make the officer aware of his presence," Martino said.

The incident happened in the early morning of May 19, 2018. According to Brantford police, officers had been called about an unrelated domestic assault call just before 2 a.m. on Market Street, just south of Chatham Street.

While the officer who was the subjectof the investigation was inside a home responding to that call, a man "who had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol and who suffered from mental health issues," laid down in the roadway in front of the SUV, the SIU report says.

A little while later, the officer got back into his vehicle and put it in drive, the SIU says. A witness noticed there was a man lying in front of it, and ran over to tell the officer what was happening.

By this point, the SUV had rolled forward and pinned the man underneath it, the SIU says. A tow truck was called in to pull it off, so the man could crawl out.

I note that the officer had no reason at the time to suspect that someone might take the sort of unusual and drastic action adopted by the complainant.- Joseph Martino, interim SIUdirector

An altercation then broke out between the man and police, the SIU says. He was eventually controlled and taken to hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with second-degree burns to his back and buttocks, broken ribs and other injuries.

According to Brantford police, officers had dealt with similar incidents involving this man before. One happened in June of 2017, when employees called police to report a "suspicious" man "pacing in front of their business, the report reads.

According to a police report, when an officer pulled up in his police vehicle, the man laid down on his back.

"[The officer] feared that the [man] was placing himself in a very dangerous situation, by lying down in busy driveways where vehicles might not see him," the SIU report says.

In his decision, Martino said no criminal offence had taken place.

"The question arises whether the officer could have acted in some way to avert the injuries that were caused to the [man]," he said. "Theoretically, the [officer] might have personally inspected the front of his vehicle before setting it in motion.

"However, I note that the officer had no reason at the time to suspect that someone might take the sort of unusual and drastic action adopted by the complainant."

adam.carter@cbc.ca