Sudbury police cleared in incident that left suspect with a broken nose

An investigation has cleared police in Greater Sudbury who broke the nose of a suspect in Chelmsford trying to flee on a bicycle last fall. (File)

An investigation has cleared police in Greater Sudbury who broke the nose of a suspect in Chelmsford trying to flee on a bicycle last fall.

The incident took place early in the morning Sept. 30, 2025, when police received an alert that a suspect wearing an ankle monitor had left their designated residence and was now at a location in Chelmsford.

“When the owner of the residence saw police officers, he flung open the garage door and the wanted person -- the complainant -- took off on a bicycle,” said the report by the Special Investigations Unit.

Police blocked him from getting away and took hold of his arms to place him under arrest.

Resisted arrest

“The complainant began to resist arrest and was met with several strikes by (the three officers),” the SIU said.

“He was subsequently forced to the ground … where he continued to struggle. (Witness officer No. 3) applied what he described as a ‘loose rear naked choke style of grappling without actually choking him’ and witness officer No. 2 used his (stun gun) to drive-stun the complainant in the back, after which officers wrestled control of his arms and handcuffed them behind the back.”

He was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with a broken nose.

In his report, SIU director Joseph Martino said there were no “reasonable grounds” to believe officers committed a criminal offence in the incident.

“The ankle monitoring device he was wearing gave the arresting officers reasonable grounds to believe he was at an address in Chelmsford in violation of a condition of a release order,” Martino wrote.

“With respect to the force used by the officers in the complainant’s arrest, the evidence falls short of reasonably establishing it was excessive. The complainant had attempted to evade arrest and then fought against the officers’ efforts to take him into custody.”

Two officers punched him and he was hit in the knees several times to prevent him from escaping. While one account said the complainant was punched “as many as 15 times,” but if that were true, he would have had more severe injuries.

That account is “belied by the absence of more severe injury to his face,” Martino wrote.

“The takedown itself made sense as a tactic to suppress the complainant’s continuing fight and better position the officers to deal with his resistance.”

“While I accept that the complainant broke his nose in the altercation that marked his arrest, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the injury is attributable to unlawful conduct on the part of the subject officials.”

Read the full decision here.