[The province’s police watchdog is investigating after a 23-year-old man fell to his death from an apartment window during an Ottawa police drug raid in which a controversial tactical entry was used, this newspaper has learned.
The Special Investigations Unit tweeted just before 11 a.m. Wednesday that it was “investigating after a fall from an apartment building today resulted in the death of a 23-year-old man.”
Ottawa police tactical officers entered the apartment using what police sources said was a “dynamic entry” – a controversial police tactic that was lambasted by the courts earlier this year but defended by the police service.
A team of tactical officers entered the Jasmine Crescent apartment on Wednesday morning as part of a drug warrant execution. A subject of that warrant, the 23-year-old man, fell from the window of the 12th floor apartment, police sources said. It’s not known how much time elapsed after police entered the apartment before the man died. At the time of the raid, there were other people inside the apartment, sources said. It’s not known if any others were injured.]
THIS IS THE FOURTH PERSON THROWN OFF A BUILDING TO THEIR DEATHS OR SEVERE INJURY IN ONTARIO IN THE PAST 7 MONTHS
The first was Caleb Tubila Njoko, a young Black man struggling with mental health issues, in London, Ontario in May 2020. "Fell" off the balcony after police broke down his door, the cops refused to tell his mother anything about what happened that day. He entered a coma and died 3 days later, the police were let off by the SIU.
The second was Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a young Black-Indigenous woman, thrown off her balcony to her death in Toronto, Ontario in May 2020. The police were let off by the SIU.
The third was unnamed, again in London, Ontario, again a young Black man experiencing a mental health crisis, fell off his balcony. September 2020. Last I heard he was still in a coma. Likely that SIU will let off the cops again.
This is the FOURTH. Unnamed, 23 year old man undescribed otherwise. Police break in and he falls from his balcony. October 2020. Ottawa, Ontario. Doubtful the SIU will lay charges.
[A man was taken to hospital in unstable condition after a police shooting in a back lane in Winnipeg's North End Wednesday afternoon.
Winnipeg Police Service Const. Rob Carver said officers responded to the area of Powers Street and Boyd Avenue at about 12:40 p.m., after reports of an armed man in a back lane nearby.
A man was found in the lane and "officers were forced to discharge their weapons" within minutes of arriving, said Carver. The man was shot and rushed to hospital in unstable condition, he said.]
Also today! October 7, 2020