The handling of a 911 call placed from the same apartment nine days before two bodies were found inside there is now the subject of an investigation by Ontario’s police watchdog.
The Ontario Special Investigations Unit is probing whether criminal charges should be laid against one or more Ottawa Police Service members in relation to how they responded to a domestic disturbance call at 446 Cambridge St. S. on Jan. 7, police and the SIU said Monday.
On Saturday, officers returned to the same address following a 911 call from a concerned citizen. Upon arriving at the residence at 3:30 p.m., officers found the bodies of a deceased 33-year-old male, identified as Andrew Ferguson, and a deceased female, who is yet to be identified.
The woman’s identity will be released pending the results of an autopsy and the notification of next-of-kin, according to the police.
The earlier call on Jan. 7 — the same day of the funeral for slain officer Const. Eric Czapnik — was discovered during the police investigation into the suspicious deaths.
Ottawa Police Chief Vern White filed a “chief’s complaint” Monday morning about the conduct of his own officers on the initial call. This launched an internal police review “in relation to this call for service, to review the police response,” police say.
But because the subsequent call led to the finding of two bodies, the police service must notify the SIU, which is a civilian agency that investigates any incidents involving police officers that result in serious injury or death of a member of the public.
The SIU has assigned two investigators and one forensic investigator, who will determine whether one or more officers committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident. Specifically, “the SIU is investigating the subsequent police response to the domestic complaint on Jan. 7,” the unit said.
Police said no further information regarding the major crime unit’s investigation will be made while the SIU investigation is on going.
The internal police review will resume once the SIU completes its investigation.