December incident occurred at Highway 3 between Cameron Side Road and Marsh Side Road, Kingsville
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe an Ontario Provincial Police officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the serious injuries suffered by a 28-year-old man when he crashed his pickup truck into a ditch while fleeing police on Highway 3 in Essex County last December.
On December 10, 2022, at 4:11 a.m., the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) notified the SIU of an injury to the Complainant.
According to the OPP, earlier that morning, the Windsor Police Service (WPS) requested the OPP’s assistance in locating two vehicles involved in ongoing criminal offences in the Windsor area.
OPP members from the Essex Detachment located the involved vehicles and initiated a pursuit. A tire deflation device (TDD) was deployed on one of the vehicles but was ineffective and the pursuit was terminated.
After the vehicles were located again, one of the suspect vehicles purposefully collided with the OPP police vehicle driven by Witness Official (WO) #5, then fled the scene of a collision, which produced minor damage and no injuries.
At 1:30 a.m., a second TDD was deployed on the other involved suspect vehicle. When that driver attempted to avoid the TDD, the vehicle left the roadway. Upon impact in the ditch, at Highway 3 between Cameron Side Road and Marsh Side Road, Kingsville, the Complainant was ejected from the vehicle.
The Complainant was transported to Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital via Emergency Medical Services (EMS) with neck and back injuries, and later diagnosed with a fractured nose and back. The Subject Official (SO) was the officer who had deployed the TDD.