Charges stayed against Ottawa police officers involved in 2014 training explosion

Criminal charges have been stayed against threeOttawa police officers involvedin a training explosion that left five emergency responders injured, two of them seriously.

In July 2015, the Special Investigations Unit charged Sgt. Martin Rukavina, Const. Serge Clement and Const. Carl Grimardwithcriminal negligence causing bodily harm and breach of duty.

The charges cameabout a year after the explosionand after an anonymous letter surfacedaccusingRukavinaof ignoring safety concerns before the training exercise.

The charges against the officerswere stayed by the Crownin court on Thursday morning, according to Jason Gennaro, an SIU spokesperson.

A stay ofcharges differs from a withdrawal of charges in that theycan be brought back before the courts within one year of the day they're stayed.

Fireball rolled through hall, up stairs

The explosion happened Wednesday, June 18, 2014, just after 10 a.m. ET, during a joint force-entry exercise into an abandoned home.

The training exercise involved Ottawa police officers, paramedics and RCMP officers.

During the exercise, the two officers under Rukavina's supervision placed and filled a device used to create a forced-entry explosion, but used windshield wiper fluid instead of non-flammable water to fill it.

When it exploded, a massive fireball rolled down the hallway and up the stairs, where it severely burned paramedics Craig MacInnes and Reid Purdy.

Both paramedics later returned to their full-time duties. A third paramedic, Bradley Ross, suffered minor injuries, along with two Ottawa police officers.

Training evidence inconsistent

The Crown, in staying the charges, said its case largely depended on whether it was criminally negligent for the Ottawa officers to have used flammable wiper fluid as part of a device used to create an explosion to open a door.

But inconsistencies in how police officers were trained raised questions during the investigation about whether the officers were negligent or simply following accepted practices, the Crown said in its statement.

While the maker of the device says it should only be used with water, the device itself was not labelled with that information. The maker of the device has since made that change to labelling.

The Canadian Police College, which is run by the RCMP, said it trained the officers to only use water or non-alcohol based liquids, but Ottawa police officers gave contradictory evidence, saying they were told wiper fluid, which does contain alcohol, was acceptable.

The SIU investigation was complicated because the RCMP refused to permit the agency to interview any RCMP officers or trainers.

Ottawa Police also told the SIU the use of wiper fluid was "an accepted practice."

Police union welcomes decision

Matt Skof, the president of the Ottawa Police Association, said the decision was "welcome news."

"The officers are elated. This has been a difficult two years for them," he said.

Skof said the charges should never have been laid and said the proper venue to determine accountability and prevent further accidents isthrough the Ministry of Labour.

"What we have seen in the last several years and especially in my tenure as president is this criminalizing and questioning of the intent to the point of criminal around police operations," he said.

The Ministry of Labour did lay chargesin the case against the Ottawa Police Services Board, and those proceedings are ongoing.