A Chatham-Kent police officer will not face charges in connection to a crash in Blenheim that seriously injured a young woman.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has found no reasonable grounds to believe that the officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the September 2021 collision on Kent Bridge Road between Highway 3 and Ridge Line that injured a 27-year-old woman.
The SIU said police received a 911 call about a home invasion in progress in Shrewsbury on September 23, 2021 and while on the way to the call the officer noticed an oncoming vehicle passing him. He turned around with the intention of trying to stop the vehicle but spotted the vehicle’s taillights ahead and thought that the vehicle had pulled over. As he got closer, the SIU said the officer realized that the silver Ford Fusion had rolled into the ditch.
Investigators said the man driving the Ford Fusion ran away, but two female passengers were still in the vehicle and were transported to Chatham-Kent Health Alliance with undetermined injuries. Investigators said the officer helped the women and called paramedics because one of them had a dislocated hip, which later needed surgery.
The investigation revealed the vehicle veered onto the gravel shoulder, lost control and rolled a few times. The roads were wet at the time of the collision and it was raining and dark outside, according to the SIU.
The SIU said at about 12:30 a.m. on September 23, 2021, a woman called 911 to report a home invasion in progress at her residence in Blenheim. One of the intruders was identified by the caller as possibly being the woman who was later injured and officers were dispatched to the address. The caller also told the dispatcher that the vehicle had a firearm in the trunk.
The SIU said two civilian witnesses and three police members were interviewed.
SIU Director Joseph Martino concluded that the officer was lawfully performing his duties at the time and that he demonstrated "due care and regard" for public safety during the brief high speed pursuit that reached 166 km/hr.
"In the instant case, the question is whether there was any want of care in the manner in which the SO [officer] pursued the Ford, that caused or contributed to the accident, sufficiently egregious to attract criminal sanction. In my view, there was not," he wrote. "The SO [officer] was in the lawful execution of his duties when he decided to pursue the Ford. By that time, the officer was aware the home invaders had fled the residence travelling eastbound in a vehicle. In the circumstances, when the driver of the Ford, having initially pulled over, decided to accelerate away from the SO [officer], the officer had grounds to believe he and the vehicle’s passengers were freshly fleeing from the scene of the crime."
Martino also said the police cruiser had its emergency lights and siren on and there is no evidence that the officer’s speed directly imperiled others on the roadway.
Martino said the file has been closed.
The full report can be viewed here.
The Special Investigations Unit is a civilian law enforcement agency that investigates incidents involving an official where there has been death, serious injury, the discharge of a firearm at a person or an allegation of sexual assault.