A Toronto police officer most recently assigned to 55 Division has been charged with manslaughter by the province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in connection with the death of a man in Brampton in April of 2021.
“The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has reasonable grounds to believe that a Toronto Police Service officer, while off-duty at the time, committed criminal offences in connection with the death of 19-year-old Chadd Facey in April of 2021. Director Martino has caused charges to be laid against the officer,” said a news release issued by the SIU on Friday, Feb. 10.
“The investigation found that on April 26, 2021, two off-duty Toronto Police Service officers met and interacted with Mr. Facey in Brampton. Later that day, Mr. Facey was transported to hospital by ambulance where he was subsequently pronounced deceased.
“As a result of the SIU investigation, Constable Calvin Au is charged with one count of manslaughter and one count of aggravated assault, contrary to sections 236(b) and 268 of the Criminal Code, respectively,” said the SIU news release.
Au is also facing separate discipline charges of failing to report his connection to the incident in a Toronto police misconduct proceeding, the Toronto Star reported.
Au, who has been a Toronto police officer for more than eight years, has been suspended with pay according to police sources, the Star also reported today.
“As the matter is before the courts, and in consideration of the fair trial interests of the accused, the SIU will not provide further comment on the investigation,” said the SIU’s news release.
The Toronto Star had previously reported that Au and another off-duty Toronto police officer allegedly went to Brampton’s Bellchase Trail and Highway 50 to buy an Apple watch from Facey; the SIU has said the men met up between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Then, believing the watch was fake, they allegedly chased him down by car and then by foot. After taking Facey to the ground, Au allegedly held him down as the teen tried to get up, the Star reported.
Facey went to hospital shortly after he returned home from the confrontation, the Star reported. “Medical records seen by the Star show that he didn’t know his own name and had a “hematoma” — a pooling of blood — on his head prior to being rushed to Brampton Civic Hospital around 5:35 p.m. By 8:58 p.m., Facey had a seizure that eventually led to a ‘code blue,’ meaning respiratory or cardiac arrest, according to the medical documents. He died soon after,” the Star reported.
The other police constable involved has not been criminally charged, the Star reported.
The Star story said it wasn’t until August 2021 – when a Peel investigator reviewed Facey’s cellphone records – that “the officers’ involvement was discovered, according to the police tribunal documents.”
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