Police not at fault for death of man who jumped onto 401: SIU

Eastbound lanes of Highway 401 were shut down after incident on an overpass on Monday October 31, 2016.

A man who jumped from an overpass in Cambridge was “determined to die” and police could not have done anything to change the outcome, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has found.

The SIU has completed its investigation into the Oct. 31, 2016 death of the 56-year-old man, concluding that there is no reason to charge any police officers with criminal offences in connection with their handling of the incident.

According to the SIU’s report, the man was first seen trying to throw himself in front of vehicles and then seen climbing the Hespeler Road overpass above Highway 401.

When police arrived, one officer told the man that he was there to help. Moments later, the SIU found, the man fell eight metres to the highway.

The officer followed the man to the highway, which had been closed, and performed CPR on him. Although the man resumed breathing, he later died of injuries sustained in the fall.

SIU director Tony Loparco found that the man was “clearly suffering from a mental illness” and intended to die by suicide, and police did not do anything to provoke him.

“Both officers treated the (man) reasonably, and with respect and compassion,” he wrote.

“They did everything in their power to convince the (man) to abandon his plans.”

The SIU’s investigation involved interviews with four police officers who responded to the incident and 13 civilians who witnessed the events, as well as video taken by one of the civilians and video from a Grand River Transit bus that the man had jumped in front of.