The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has cleared a Barrie police officer of any wrongdoing after a man was seriously injured while being arrested last year.
On Oct. 27, 2022, Barrie police aided Ontario Provincial Police in the arrest of a 24-year-old man for "numerous criminal offences" in the area of an address on Georgian Drive, the SIU's final report states.
The arrest took place on Johnson Street.
The report notes police had information “linking (the suspect) to firearms.”
An officer ordered the man to get on the ground and, when he did not, the officer “grabbed him and took him to the ground.
“With the complainant in a prone position, the officer placed a knee on his back and secured his arms in handcuffs behind the back," the SIU said in its report.
After being taken to the Nottawasaga OPP detachment, the suspect complained of a sore ankle. He was taken to Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston, where it was determined he had a fractured right fibula.
SIU director Joseph Martino said there were "no reasonable grounds to believe that an officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the man’s arrest and injury.”
