Cops cleared after man who allegedly rammed cruisers with stolen van injured during Brampton arrest

An SIU vehicle is seen in this undated file photo.

A group of officers will not face criminal charges after a man who allegedly rammed two police cruisers with a stolen vehicle in Brampton earlier this year was injured while being arrested.

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said that on Jan. 13 at around 11:30 p.m. officers from Peel Regional Police were doing surveillance on a suspected stolen van, which was parked in the vicinity of Rutherford Road South and Steeles Avenue East.

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The SIU says that one point officers in four marked cruisers blocked in the vehicle, while two unmarked police vehicles, one of which was a canine team, arrived from the rear.

The officers then approached both sides of the van and demanded that its 32-year-old male driver along with two other male occupants show their hands and get out, the agency said.

“Instead, the driver reversed the van and then drove forward into two of the cruisers. He did this multiple times,” the SIU said in a news release.

The civilian agency said that the driver struck the same police vehicles on at least three occasions before ultimately coming to a stop.

SIU Director Joseph Martino indicated in his report that the driver, along with two other males, were arrested inside the vehicle after two windows were smashed out and a Conducted Energy Weapon was deployed on three occasions.

The driver was taken to Brampton Civic Hospital due to glass in his eye, he noted, and was later diagnosed with a fractured orbital bone. The man’s injuries were deemed serious.

Martino noted that the SIU, an arm’s length agency called in to investigate whenever police are involved in a death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault, was notified of the incident at 5:20 a.m. the following morning and investigators were dispatched to the scene about an hour later.

After assessing the evidence, he has determined that there are “no reasonable grounds to believe that any of the subject officials (officers) committed a criminal offence in connection with the Complainant’s arrest and injury.”

Martino went on to note that police officers are immune from criminal liability for force used in the course of their duties “provided such force was reasonably necessary in the execution of an act that they were required or authorized to do by law.”

In this case, he said that the Complainant was in possession of a stolen vehicle and was subject to arrest for theft over $5,000.

“With respect to the force brought to bear by the police in aid of the complainant’s arrest, the evidence falls short of any reasonable suggestion it was excessive. The complainant’s prompt apprehension was a matter of some urgency,” Martino wrote.

“He was using the van to ram the cruisers around him, imperiling the lives of the officers in the vicinity.”

The SIU’s director also said that police’s use of the conducted energy weapon “made sense in the circumstances.

He added that the “forced extrication and takedown once the driver’s door was opened was reasonable for the same reasons.”

“On this record, I am unable to reasonably conclude that the quantum of force used by the officers was more than was necessary. For the foregoing reasons, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case,” Martino said.

The file has now been closed.