Ontario Community Newspapers

Oakville Beaver, 22 Jan 2015, p. 7

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Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) re-opened an investigation, six years to the day when an Oakville man drowned in the Grand River in January 2009 following a struggle with a Brantford, Ont. police officer. The decision to re-open the case comes as a result of "materially new information coming to light," SIU director Tony Loparco said in a release Tuesday. The SIU originally cleared Brantford police of any misconduct in the circumstances surrounding the death of 32-year-old Benjamin Wood. The initial SIU investigation determined that in the early morning hours of Jan. 20, 2009, a Brantford police officer followed a set of shoe prints from a stolen car to the bank of the Grand River near Brantford Casino where a struggle ensued between the officer and Wood. Wood ventured out onto the river's ice surface despite repeated SIU re-opens case in 2009 drowning death of Oakville man pleas from multiple officers to get off the ice. A short time later, officers saw Wood go through the ice. Members of the Ontario Provincial Police underwater search and recovery unit located his body at noon that same day. A post-mortem determined Wood died of drowning and hypothermia. Based on the information available at the time, the SIU concluded in late February 2009 there were no reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence was committed by any officer with Brantford police. Four officers and two forensic investigators had been called in by the SIU to probe the circumstances surrounding Wood's death. The SIU said it would make no further comment on the Wood case while the investigation is ongoing. It's the second closed case involving Brantford police reopened by the police watchdog this month. On Jan. 14, the SIU said it was re-opening its investigation into the shooting death of an 18-year-old man. Again, the SIU cited materially new information coming to light. Evan Jones was fatally shot after police responded to a domestic dispute on Sympatica Crescent on Aug. 25, 2010. The SIU probe found that a police officer shot Jones four times after Jones refused to comply with demands to drop two knives and a meat cleaver he was using to threaten police. The SIU concluded there were no grounds for criminal charges to be brought against the officer. The arm's length agency investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. -- Brant News, Torstar News Service 7 | Thursday, January 22, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Oakville Beaver file photo of an Ontario Special Investigations Unit. | Oakville Beaver file photo January 12th - February 12th Award Winning Italian Cuisine Private Dining · Corporate Functions · Family Events Taste of Clarkson 905 822 5751 www.michaelsbackdoor.com 1715 Lakeshore Road West LIVE LAUGH SMILE 330 Dundas St. E. Oakville · 905-257-3182 info@klerdental.ca www.klerdental.ca Open Evenings & Saturdays Ready to buy a New Car? Visit www.carcostcanada.com first. Canada's #1 resourCe for wholesale priCe reports. We'll show you all advertised & non-advertised factory incentives & discounts. Denis from Oakville saved over $3,500 with his CarCostCanada report. Call us at 289-438-1573

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