No criminal charges for officers in death of Black man with mental illness Tasered in own backyard

'Significant force’ used against Clive Mensah but police didn't act unlawfully: watchdog Ontario's police watchdog has ruled there will be no criminal charges against the officers involved in the 2019 death of an unarmed Black man with mental illness who obeyed a police command to get on the ground before he was Tasered and pepper-sprayed in the backyard of his own home.

In a decision released Monday, Special Investigations Unit (SIU) director Joseph Martino concluded that the three Peel Regional Police officers acted reasonably when they restrained 30-year-old Clive Mensah at his Mississauga, Ont., home on Nov. 20, 2019.

"Though there is no doubt that significant force was used against the complainant, I am satisfied it was not unlawful," Martino said in the report.

"Might not the officers have been better advised to to simply move in to attempt to take physical control of the complainant before resorting to a weapon? Perhaps," he wrote. "However, allowance must be made for the fact that police officers embroiled in potentially volatile situations need not measure the nature and extent of their force with precision."

Mensah's family issued a written statement on Monday saying they're devastated by the decision.

"No family should have to lose a loved one this way. Clive was alone and scared and had done nothing wrong," they said.

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