Crown counsel has decided not to approve a criminal charge against a Vancouver police officer involved in a pursuit last summer in the West End that ended with a man severely injuring his leg.
The officer, whose name was not released, drove his cruiser July 15 into a construction fence on which the wanted man was fleeing police for allegedly damaging a business owner’s sign.
The incident occurred just before midnight in a lane behind the 1100-block Denman Street, according to the criminal justice branch of the Ministry of Justice, which issued a report Wednesday that explained why a charge wasn’t approved against the officer.
“The only direct evidence of the specific events that led to the injuries comes from the injured male and the officer driving the police vehicle,” the report said.
“Depending on which version a judge or jury accepted, the officer’s conduct was either an intentional ramming of the fence intending or at least reasonably expecting that it would cause the male to fall off, or it was an inadvertent contact with the fence as a result of making a sudden stop on a gravel surface.”
The officer said his car contacted the fence likely because it slid in loose gravel. The man “came off the fence and landed on the ground,” the report said.
The officer climbed over the fence and arrested the man, who was then transported to hospital to be treated for his leg injury.
The man’s version of events is that he did nothing wrong but refused to speak to an officer who rolled up next to him in his car.
When he saw five police cars, all with emergency lights engaged, he fled and said he was climbing over the fence to get to “his buddy’s car,” the report said.
The man told investigators he was launched 20 feet in the air and did three forward rolls into a field, severely injuring his leg. He admitted to drinking “about six or seven ounces of alcohol” with dinner but had no drugs in his system.
Given the conflicting evidence, the justice branch said it would be impossible for Crown to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer intentionally used unnecessary force by driving his vehicle into the fence.
“If a judge or jury were to accept the officer’s account of what took place, he would be acquitted of any possible charges that might be considered in the circumstances,” the report said.
The justice branch reviewed the case at the request of the Independent Investigations Office, which believed an offence may have occurred.
The office, which investigates police incidents related to serious harm and death, began operating in September 2012.
Since then, the agency has asserted jurisdiction over 14 VPD incidents and has cleared officers of any wrongdoing in eight investigations and continues to investigate six others, including an April 12 incident involving a police dog bite.
