The province’s police watchdog has invoked its mandate after a 24-year-old man who was apparently suffering a mental episode was stunned twice with a conducted energy weapon and shot with an anti-riot weapon in a Vaughan park Monday morning.
Officers with York Regional Police were called to Misty Sugar Park, near Thornhill Woods Drive and Highway 7 in the Thornhill Woods area, at around 9:30 a.m. for reports that there was a man armed with a weapon.
Police went to the park and found the man. An interaction followed in which an officer deployed a conducted energy weapon, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said late Monday.
The man then fled into the park and was pursued by uniformed officers as well as members of the Emergency Response Unit.
According to the SIU, there was a second interaction with the man and an ESU member discharged another conducted energy weapon, along with an ARWEN anti-riot weapon, a device designed to shoot non-lethal rounds for crowd control.
The man was then apprehended under the Mental Health Act and transported to Mackenzie Health in Richmond Hill.
After being examined at the hospital, he was found to have a serious injury.
The SIU said it has now assigned one investigator and two forensic investigators to the case.
The SIU is an arm’s length organization called in to investigate whenever police are involved in an incident resulting in a death, serious injury, or allegations of sexual assault.
Anyone with information about the incident is being asked to contact the SIU.
