The province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has determined there are no grounds for criminal charges after a woman fell to her death from a 10th-floor balcony in the city's north end in March.
Two Barrie police officers went to the Kozlov Street building shortly before 12:30 p.m. on March 25 to check on the 79-year-old woman after a physician had contacted authorities because they were concerned about her well-being.
The doctor "had had a telephone conversation with the (woman), who sounded delusional and as if she was having a panic attack," according to the SIU report.
The 911 recording indicates the woman was "incoherent (and) repeated that she could not talk right now and was feeling very unwell. She had hyperventilated."
The doctor told the 911 operator that the woman had been released from hospital March 14 after being diagnosed with hyponatremic delirium, according to the SIU report.
At the time of her discharge, she had returned to “baseline” and was doing well. The woman had severe anxiety and it was possible that she was having a panic attack.
The doctor remained on the phone with the woman "for some time, but was unable to get her to calm down."
Barrie police telephoned the woman and told her they were calling to check on her. She stated that she was “OK.”
The 911 operator said a police officer was coming and asked if she required an ambulance, to which she replied she did not.
The operator inquired if she was having difficulty breathing. The woman, who was alone in the apartment, replied, “I’ll be OK. Thanks.”
The operator asked several other questions, including if she wanted to be seen by a paramedic, but the woman declined.
When the woman was told an officer was coming to speak to her, she responded: “What is this?”
The 911 operator reiterated Barrie police wanted to make sure everything was fine.
The woman responded, “Who?” The operator told her a police officer. The woman replied, “Please don’t send. I’m OK.”
Around 12:40 p.m., the officers knocked on the door, announced who they were and indicated they were there to make sure she was OK.
There was no response.
When one of the officers went to the main floor to get a key to the unit, a woman came running into the lobby telling the superintendent that someone had just fallen off a balcony. The officer was informed there was a woman lying on the ground outside the building, directly below the 10th-floor balcony.
With the help of an off-duty trauma nurse, CPR was administered, but the woman was pronounced dead at the rear of the building.
The preliminary cause of death was determined to be "blunt-force trauma consistent with a fall from height."
She had fallen more than 25 metres.
Barrie police notified the SIU at 1:34 p.m.
SIU director Joseph Martino has determined there are no reasonable grounds to believe that either officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the woman’s falling death.
"On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that either (officer) committed a criminal offence in connection with the (woman's) death," said Martino, adding "there is no evidence of any interaction between the parties."
Martino also emphasized the officers were not in the apartment at the time of her death.
"In the final analysis, while it is conceivable in the (woman's) paranoid state that she made a rash and fateful decision when she learned of the presence of police officers at her door, there are no grounds for believing that the officers were criminally negligent in their conduct in the minutes preceding (her) fall," Martino said.
The SIU is an arm’s-length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
