OPP officers won’t be charged for man’s injuries prior to arrest at Exeter hospital
No charges will be laid against three OPP officers involved in the arrest of a 41-year-old man at a Huron County hospital last September. The Special Investigations Unit determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe the officers were criminally responsible for the man’s injuries. The SIU said he had taken cocaine on Sept.
15 and was reportedly acting strangely in the parking lot of an A&W restaurant. The man was then transported to South Huron Hospital in Exeter. While there, he became paranoid and began “losing touch with reality.” He allegedly tried to defecate in a garbage bin before he was redirected to a small one-person washroom in the emergency room.
The man then refused to come out. Hospital staff called OPP to assist but they were unable to communicate with the man so they forced open the washroom door. Inside, they saw the man had climbed into the ceiling and was clinging to the ductwork.
Officers and staff members decided to place mattresses on the floor in case the man fell down. 
The damage to South Huron Hospital’s washroom after a man climbed into the ceiling on Sept.
15, 2023. (Source: SIU) Police negotiated with him for hours but determined he was “delusional.”
The man then tried set some of the insulation on fire with a lighter, triggering the sprinkler system and forcing the closure of the emergency department. 
South Huron Hospital’s ER washroom after the arrest of a man on Sept.
15, 2023. (Source: SIU) At around 12:30 a.m., OPP brought in ladders and one of the officer’s punched the man’s hands and arms during their attempt to remove him from the ceiling.
The man then fell onto the floor. Following his arrest, it was determined the man had three fractured ribs. The SIU report said the man “had purposefully damaged property” and he was of “unsound mind and a threat to himself and others.”
The SIU’s director said it was unclear when the man was injured but felt the force used was legally justified.