Hamilton Police cleared in man’s fall from balcony

The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has closed an investigation into the serious injuries suffered by a 33-year-old man in Hamilton when he fell from an apartment balcony in October.

In the morning of October 30, 2022, Hamilton Police Service officers were dispatched to an apartment building on Congress Crescent following a 911 call in which two people were heard yelling. Upon arrival at the apartment unit, the officers spoke with a woman, and searched the unit for a man without success. While the officers were in the company of the woman by the doorway, they heard a sound from the balcony and went to check on it. Looking over the railing, they saw a man on the ground below the balcony. The man was taken to hospital and diagnosed with multiple fractures and other internal injuries. 

Whether the man jumped intentionally or fell accidentally attempting to conceal himself from the police is unknown – he refused an interview with the SIU.  Whatever the case, Director Martino determined it was evident that neither officer did, or failed to do, anything that caused or contributed to the man’s descent. Accordingly, there being patently nothing to investigate as far as the potential criminal liability of the officers is concerned, the file has been closed.