SIU Authorizes OPP Officer After Man Drowned in Norfolk County’s Waterford Ponds | The Canadian News

The Ontario police watchdog says it has found “no reasonable grounds” to support criminal charges against an OPP officer in a drowning that took place in Waterford, Ontario, over the summer.

The death took place on the night of July 17 after police responded to reports that a man “suffered from mental disorders and behaved erratically,” according to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

Officers were dispatched to find and arrest the man with a pending warrant.

“As the officers approached, the man entered Waterford Ponds and began to swim,” SIU said in your last report on the matter.

“About halfway through, the man started fighting and asking for help.”

The SIU says two civilians entered the water in an effort to save the man, and an officer removed his uniform to join them. The officer swam to the middle of the pond, but the SIU says the man “had dived under the surface of the water.”

Two officers then located a small rowboat and rowed to where the man had last been seen, searching the area for more than two hours, but they did not find him.

His body was recovered the next day and the SIU says he drowned.

The SIU did not identify the victim but said he was a 42-year-old man.

In an update shared Friday afternoon, SIU Director Joseph Martino said he had no reason to believe that the officer who swam into the pond had committed a crime, in particular criminal negligence that resulted in death, and considered that the file was closed.

“I am also satisfied that the officers behaved with due care and consideration for the health and well-being (of the man) during their relationship with him,” said Martino in his analysis and decision attached to the investigation.

“In this file, it is evident that the officers did nothing to contribute to the death of the appellant and much to try to prevent it.”

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