An off-duty Toronto police officer has been found guilty of assault, but not guilty of assault causing bodily harm, in a “Kijiji deal gone bad” where a teen allegedly sold a fake Apple Watch and later died from a head injury.
On April 26, 2021, off-duty officers Const. Calvin Au along with Const. Gurmakh Benning agreed to meet 19-year-old Chadd Facey who had posted an ad on Kijiji to sell an Apple Watch.
Facey negotiated a price of $400 with Benning. The court heard that Benning had asked Au, his partner, to accompany him given he viewed Au as more tech savvy and wanted him to authenticate the watch.
Dressed in plainclothes, the two met Facey at a school parking lot on Ironshield Drive, near Cottrelle Boulevard and Highway 50, in Brampton for the transaction.
Benning had purchased the watch before realizing it was counterfeit. Facey took off and following a five minute foot pursuit, Benning had caught up to him and got his money back.
At the trial, Benning had testified that Au took Facey down, without saying anything, because he thought Au didn’t know that he had already got his money back.
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Au testified, in his own defence, that he didn’t know Benning had got his money back and took down Facey because he was going to arrest him. However, he did not identify himself as an officer or say he was arresting Facey and Justice Jennifer Woollcombe said she found that problematic.
Justice Woollcombe said in her ruling on Wednesday she found Au used force that was “excessive and unreasonable.”
“The force Au used was out of proportion with the objective of getting the money back,” she said.
Au was originally charged with manslaughter, but the charge was later downgraded to assault causing bodily harm. At the beginning of the trial, an agreed statement of facts was entered which said “the Crown is not in a position to allege that Facey’s death was caused by the interaction with Au.”
Benning had called 911 and told the dispatcher about the “Kijiji deal gone bad” before the off-duty officers took off.
A few hours later, Facey’s friends noticed a bump on his forehead. He later died in hospital as a result of intracerebral hemorrhage.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 6.
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