The whole department needs re-staffing at this point.

The ranks only make memes about the brass because the respect has been lost.

Windsor woman in disbelief after police shoot, kill dog in her backyard

Windsor resident Diane Scott is still in disbelief after she says police shot and killed her 10-year-old dog in her backyard Thursday morning.

After someone knocked on Scott's door in the Forest Glade neighbourhood, she said she went to let her dog, Chloe, out in the backyard, as the Rottweiler Doberman gets excited when people are around.

Having done so, Scott says she opened the front door to two Windsor police officers — they were looking for her son's friend, who was at the house.

Before she knew it, Scott said she heard a gunshot from the backyard. It turns out that while officers were at the front door, others had gone to the back.

"I was like, 'What the hell,' and they said, 'Go attend to your dog, your dog has just been shot.' And I was like, 'What? My dog has just been shot?'" Scott said, adding that she didn't even know officers were in her backyard.

Legal experts question whether police who shot dog in Windsor backyard had grounds to be there


Legal experts are questioning whether police who shot and killed a Windsor woman's dog in her backyard had the legal right to be there in the first place.

Without all the details, defence lawyers say they can't say for sure whether Windsor police were in the wrong, but say there are certain legal grounds that needed to be met for them to enter the backyard.

. . .

Criminal defence lawyer Ari Goldkind said he was "outraged" when he saw the story.

He said unless the officers were in pursuit of the suspect, had a search warrant or were invited in to the woman's backyard, that they shouldn't have been there.

"The idea that they went into that backyard where that dog was placed for officers' safety and as a result of her putting that dog in the backyard to protect officers, one officer blew that dog away that officer should be deeply ashamed," Goldkind said.

Criminal defence lawyer Bobby Russon told CBC News Monday that police need to be able to justify it being necessary for them to enter the backyard. He said that even if their reason is to make sure the suspect didn't run, he doesn't see why they'd have to physically be in the gated backyard at that point in time.

He also said that police should have been more selective with the device they used to subdue the dog, which police described in a news release as being "aggressive" and "lunging at them and attempting to bite them multiple times."

In the release, police also said the officer "believed their safety was in jeopardy," which is why they shot the dog.

The release said officers were at the home to arrest a person wanted for "serious offences in another jurisdiction." The suspect was arrested at the house.

"There was time [for police] to think and react if there were multiple attempts, why wouldn't they use the multitude of non-lethal weapons that they have?" Russon said.

"It's hard to imagine, based on the facts we know, what additional facts could come in that would justify that level of force."

if the statute of limitations is not past.

No criminal charges for officers in death of Black man with mental illness Tasered in own backyard

Ontario's police watchdog has ruled there will be no criminal charges against the officers involved in the 2019 death of an unarmed Black man with mental illness who obeyed a police command to get on the ground before he was Tasered and pepper-sprayed in the backyard of his own home.

In a decision released Monday, Special Investigations Unit (SIU) director Joseph Martino concluded that the three Peel Regional Police officers acted reasonably when they restrained 30-year-old Clive Mensah at his Mississauga, Ont., home on Nov. 20, 2019.

"Though there is no doubt that significant force was used against the complainant, I am satisfied it was not unlawful," Martino said in the report.

"Might not the officers have been better advised to to simply move in to attempt to take physical control of the complainant before resorting to a weapon? Perhaps," he wrote. "However, allowance must be made for the fact that police officers embroiled in potentially volatile situations need not measure the nature and extent of their force with precision."

Mensah's family issued a written statement on Monday saying they're devastated by the decision.

"No family should have to lose a loved one this way. Clive was alone and scared and had done nothing wrong," they said.

Edmonton police constable acquitted of assault on suspect



An Edmonton police officer has been found not guilty of using excessive force during an arrest six years ago that left the suspect with facial fractures.

Const. Nathan Downing was accused of repeatedly punching Nasser El Hallak in the head and shouting racial slurs during a traffic stop in 2015. But Downing said he delivered one blow to the side of El Hallak's head to stop him from fleeing.

At a disciplinary hearing, Downing faced six charges under the Police Act including unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority and discreditable conduct stemming from a complaint filed by El Hallak.

Six years after the arrest, Downing has been exonerated on all charges.

"While I find the injuries sustained did in fact occur during the arrest, the use of force analysis must go beyond that rudimentary conclusion to determine whether or not the force used was appropriate in the circumstances," wrote presiding officer Thomas Grue in a decision released Wednesday.

"This is not a case of gratuitous violence employed by an out-of-control police officer," Grue said.

No charges in death of Ejaz Choudry, 62-year-old shot and killed by police while in crisis



Ontario's police watchdog has ruled there will be no criminal charges against police in the death of a 62-year-old father of four shot and killed by an officer last summer after his family called a non-emergency line for help while he was in crisis.

In a decision released Tuesday, Special Investigations Unit (SIU) director Joseph Martino concluded the Peel Regional Police officer who fired two bullets into Ejaz Choudry's chest acted reasonably when he opened fire from the balcony of Choudry's locked Mississauga, Ont., apartment on June 20, 2020.

Choudry, the report says, was armed with a 20-centimetre-long kitchen knife when police kicked in his balcony door and shouted at him in English — a language his family has said he didn't properly understand — to drop his weapon. The officer in charge was concerned Choudry, who had schizophrenia and was not taking his medication, was at risk of self-harm, Martino said.

A statement sent to CBC News on behalf of the Choudry family by their lawyers said the family was "deeply disappointed" but not surprised by the decision.

"Ejaz committed no crime. He did not deserve any of this," says the statement, which points out that police claimed they needed to intervene for Choudry's safety, yet killed him within seconds of accessing the apartment.

The statement says police, who had been on scene for roughly three hours, entered the unit against the family's wishes and asks why family members were prevented from speaking with Choudry before police went in.

"If there are no reasonable grounds to lay charges in this case, then when will the SIU ever take action for a police killing?"

VPD officer faces several charges in connection with arrest of suspected shoplifter

A Vancouver police officer is facing several charges in connection with the arrest of a shoplifting suspect, according to the B.C. Prosecution Service.

Two charges of assault with a weapon, one charge of attempting to obstruct justice, and one count of dangerous driving have been approved against Vancouver police Const. Jonathan Kempton.