The Province’s Special Investigations Unit says it has terminated an investigation into an injury suffered by a 34-year-old woman in August in Chatsworth.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials, including police officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
SIU Director Joseph Martino says, on the morning of August 20th, 2023, the woman, while reportedly feeling the effects of fentanyl withdrawal, crashed the vehicle she was driving in a ditch at the intersection of Grey-Bruce Line and Concession 8, Chatsworth.
The SIU says she got out of the vehicle armed with a firearm and tried to carjack a pickup truck, but was, they say “dispossessed of the firearm by the pick-up truck driver.”
The SIU says the woman then fled into a cornfield and hid.
About two-and-a-half hours later, she was located and arrested by OPP.
Martino says the woman suffered a minor injury as a result of being bitten by a police dog, and she suffered a fractured clavicle as a result of the crash.
Based on the SIU’s preliminary inquiries, Martino was satisfied the investigation should be discontinued. The SIU says, “It was apparent that the woman’s fractured collarbone was not caused by a police officer. As such, the SIU was without jurisdiction to continue the investigation. The file has been closed.”
All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. They consider whether an official has committed a criminal offence or to close the file without laying charges.