Editor’s note: This story deals with suicide and contains graphic content that may shock, offend, and upset. Reader discretion is advised.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has finished its investigation into the death by suicide of a 40-year-old man in a Lakefield apartment on Boxing Day and has cleared a Peterborough police officer of any criminal wrongdoing.
According to the SIU’s report of its investigation, on December 26, 2023 at 1:28 a.m., a woman called the Peterborough Police Service to report that her son with mental health issues was suicidal and was at his apartment on Queen Street in Lakefield. She said he had texted her and said he would hang himself, sending her a photo of a noose.
The police officer who was the subject of the SIU’s investigation arrived at man’s apartment and knocked on the door. The man answered the door, told the officer to leave, and closed and locked the door behind him.
The man’s mother, who had also arrived at the scene, gave the officer a key to enter the apartment. After the officer entered, the man confronted him with a metal baseball bat, which he used to cross-check the officer in the face.
The officer withdrew from the apartment until additional police officers arrived at the scene, when they heard loud banging noises from within the man’s apartment. They attempted to communicate with him, including by calling and texting his phone, but he did not respond or answer his phone.
At 2:03 a.m., a police officer forced open the apartment door and officers entered the apartment, discovering the man lying supine on the kitchen floor with a rope around his neck. Officers began cardiopulmonary resuscitation with emergency medical services, who were at the scene on standby, taking over. The man was pronounced dead at 2:26 a.m.
“On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the (subject officer) committed a criminal offence in connection with the (victim’s) death,” writes SIU director Joseph Martino in his report.
“The (subject officer) comported himself at all times with due care and regard for the (victim’s) health and well-being. He arrived on scene quickly, did what he could to reach the (victim) by phone and text, encouraged him to refrain from hurting himself, and tried to intervene physically on several occasions.”
“On the second such occasion, after the (victim’s mother) had provided him a key, the (subject officer) was assaulted by the (victim). In the circumstances, the officer was right to wait for additional officers to arrive on scene before trying to enter again. In the meantime, he continued to text the (victim).”
Martino also concluded the other police officers who arrived at the scene “acted with dispatch in formulating an approach plan” and, after finding the man unresponsive in the apartment, “also acted with haste in rendering medical care.”
“I am satisfied that the (subject officer) and the other officers on scene did not transgress the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law in their dealings with the (victim). As such, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges.”
The SIU is a civilian law enforcement agency, independent of the police, that conducts criminal investigations into circumstances involving police and civilians that have resulted in serious injury, death, or allegations of sexual assault.
