TORONTO, Ont. – The province’s police watchdog has cleared a Toronto police officer in the death of a 43-year-old man in August.

Police were called to speak to a man who was preparing to jump from the third-floor roof of a Parliament Street building on Aug. 4.

According to the Special Investigations Unit, the officer went to the third-floor roof and began to negotiate with the man. When he arrived, he saw the man sitting atop a raised chimney.

The SIU said that an audio recording of the exchange showed that “the subject officer [was] making every effort to dissuade the man from placing himself in a position of further danger.”

When the man asked that the officer and an Emergency Task Force officer “back off,” both responding officers complied, the watchdog said.

As the man began his descent from the chimney top, he lost his footing, falling onto a deck below, the SIU said.

“On the basis of this investigation, there is no causal relationship between the death of the man and any culpable acts by the subject officer,” Ian Scott, director of the SIU said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, the man fell from the roof, causing his death when he impacted with a deck or balcony below. The subject officer was not responsible in any fashion for the man’s death.”
 
The man was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries six days later. An autopsy concluded the cause of death was “complications due to multiple blunt force traumas.”

The SIU investigates incidents involving police that result in death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.