SIU clears OPP officer in Chapleau apartment balcony death

The province's police watchdog says it has found no reasonable grounds to charge an OPP officer in relation to the death of a 27-year-old man in August of last year.

The Special Investigations Unit said provincial police officers were called to an apartment building in Chapleau, northwest of Sudbury, after getting a 911 call that a man had threatened to shoot another tenant.

When they arrived, the SIU said officers initially spoke with the man accused of making threats and determined they didn't have grounds to arrest him. Outside the building, the officers spoke with the person who made the 911 call and then, having received updated information, called a superior to get permission to enter the man's apartment.

Shortly after, while the police were outside, the man accused of making threats fell from his second-floor balcony and landed on the ground, the SIU said. He died in hospital three days later.

The SIU noted its investigation found no evidence of a struggle on the balcony or in the man's apartment, nor did it find any evidence at the scene that contradicted witnesses, who said the man fell backward off his balcony and hit his head on a patio stone.

The SIU said the man's blood alcohol level was excessively elevated. It called the man's death "a tragic case of misadventure."