SIU ends investigation into 60‑year‑old’s injury during police encounter outside hospital

A hospital is pictured in this image. (FILE)

A man’s elbow was broken during an arrest outside a Bracebridge hospital, but Ontario’s police watchdog says the officer involved did nothing unlawful.

In a report released Monday, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) found no reasonable grounds to believe an Ontario Provincial Police officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the elbow injury.

The incident happened on Nov. 24, after a 60-year-old man was discharged from the hospital but refused to leave the property.

The SIU report indicates that security escorted him outside, but when he continued to resist, police were called in and he was arrested.

During the arrest, the officer took the man’s left arm to turn him around as he moved back toward the hospital doors. During this interaction that the man’s elbow was broken.

SIU Deputy Director Stacey O’Brien concluded in her report that the injury occurred during the physical interaction, but was not the result of unlawful force.