A member of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service has been cleared of any wrongdoing after breaking an irate woman’s arm during an arrest last fall.
On Oct. 13, police officers attended a call in a front yard near Huron Street and Wellington Street West where a 24-year-old woman had “become violent” and "volatile,"
A civilian witness called police out of fear the woman would become aggressive with her.
Two police officers initially arrived on the scene, placing themselves between the woman and civilian witness to keep them separated, according to a report from the province’s Special Investigations Unit.
When police took hold of the woman, she reacted by “striking them each in the face,” with one officer ultimately sent to the hospital after receiving a fingernail to the eye.
The woman “frequently became violent with her family” and had “difficulty with regulating her behaviour,” according to an additional 911 call from a separate resident.
The officers managed to seat the woman on the sidewalk, the report said, while waiting for assistance to arrive. A member of the police’s Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team promptly arrived on the scene with a social worker.
When the MCRRT officer assisted the other officers with arresting the woman, her arm was broken and she was transported to hospital by paramedics, the report said.
“The officer took hold of the (woman’s) right arm and brought it behind her back to be handcuffed. In that process, an audible snap was heard. The (woman) had sustained a fracture of the right arm,” the report said.
As a result, police contacted the SIU following the incident, which has a mandate to investigate incidents involving police that result in death, serious injury, discharge of a firearm at a person, or allegations of sexual assault.
Following the investigation, SIU director Joseph Martino concluded “there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the (officer) committed a criminal offence in connection with the complainant’s arrest and injury.”
When the woman struck the first two police officers in the face, Martino wrote, she “rendered herself subject to arrest for assault,” and highlighted that police officers are immune from criminal liability when force is reasonably necessary.
“With respect to the force brought to bear by the (officer), I am unable to reasonably conclude it was excessive,” he wrote.
“Grabbing hold of the complainant’s right arm and manipulating it around her back to be handcuffed were actions required to effect the arrest and performed without undue force. Certainly, some force was used by the officer to bring it behind the back, but this was made necessary by the complainant’s resistance.”