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Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a London officer of any wrongdoing in the arrest of a man whose nose was broken.
Police responded around 2:30 a.m on May 20 to a report of a man who had broken his probation order to stay away from a home near Veterans Memorial Parkway and Dundas Street, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said in a report released Tuesday.
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The man left before officers arrived, but he returned to the home two hours later and police were called again. An officer chased the man, who resisted arrested, prompting the officer to punch him in the face, the SIU said.
The man fell to the ground but continued to struggle, so the officer punched him in the lower back before he was arrested, the SIU said.
The man was taken to police headquarters, where his nose began to bleed and he went unconscious. He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a fractured nose, the SIU said.
The subject officer declined to be interviewed by the SIU, as is his legal right, but provided a copy of his notes to the watchdog’s investigators.
The head of the SIU said the officer’s use of force was justified and wasn’t disproportionate.
“The complainant had previously eluded police and had demonstrated that he was intent on returning to the address, where he had caused property damage and threatened to do more,” Joseph Martino wrote in his report that closed the case. “It was imperative, in the circumstances, that the complainant not be allowed to escape again.”
The SIU investigates all cases of serious injury, death, gunfire and allegations of sexual assault involving officers.
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