SIU investigating police use of anti-riot weapon on man in Cambridge

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is probing the circumstances surrounding the deployment of an Anti-Riot Weapon EnField (ARWEN) on a 57-year-old man in Cambridge.

Preliminary information from the SIU suggests officers with the Waterloo Regional Police Service were called to a domestic incident at a Super 8 hotel in Cambridge around 10:45 a.m. on April 25.

Police reportedly had information that a man at the scene was armed with edged weapons.

Around 11:30 a.m., members of the Emergency Response Team engaged with the man, during which an ARWEN was deployed. The man was struck by the projectile and subsequently arrested.

He was later transported to hospital and did not suffer any serious injuries.

The SIU, which investigates incidents involving police where there has been death, serious injury, discharge of a firearm at a person or allegations of sexual assault, has assigned two investigators and one forensic investigator to the case.

The agency is asking anyone with information, including video or photographs, to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529 or online at siu.on.ca/en/appeals.php.