Police watchdog shelves investigation into Oshawa arrest

Ontario’s police watchdog has shelved an investigation into injuries reported during an arrest in Oshawa as they could not confirm the reported injuries happened at all.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which investigates injuries or death following police interactions, announced on November 18, that they had suspended the investigation.

They had been called in to investigate a Durham Regional Police Service arrest on July 31. That day police got a call about a man threatening suicide.

When police responded to Simcoe and Richmond Sts. in the downtown core, they found a man, 66, in distress. They later learned this man and the callers were one and the same.

They arrested the man and took him to a local hospital for psychiatric care. After the arrest suspicions arose that the man may have fractured a rib in the process.

However, in reviewing the man’s medical records SIU director Joseph Martino could not find any evidence of the fracture. As a result of the lack of “serious injury” the SIU was ultimately out of its jurisdiction to investigate.