It started in a Scarborough plaza, when Toronto police officers went to question a passenger in a car who wasn’t wearing his seat belt.

The vehicle took off and the police decided to give chase. Although they abandoned their pursuit, the car they were chasing hit another vehicle killing the 77-year-old driver and seriously injuring his 74-year-old wife.

The driver of the vehicle being investigated fled the scene but was later arrested.

After six months of investigating, Ontario’s police watchdog determined there are no reasonable grounds to lay criminal charges against the police.

On June 22, at around 7:10 p.m., police officers were investigating a vehicle in a plaza parking lot in the Scarborough Golf Club Road and Lawrence Avenue East area, a report released Thursday from Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit states.

Officers were investigating the vehicle because they observed the front-seat passenger wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, according to the report.

As police officers got out of their cruiser, the vehicle accelerated and fled from the plaza. Police then pursued the vehicle.

But they called off their pursuit as they entered onto Lawrence Avenue East because “there was plenty of traffic on the roadway,” the SIU report reads.

“When the Honda accelerated away from the officers in the plaza parking lot, the (subject officer) pursued the vehicle for a short period but quickly disengaged, reasonably in my view, deactivating the cruiser’s emergency lights and siren,” SIU director Joseph Martino wrote in the report.

“Given the circumstances, a full-blown police pursuit was unwarranted: there was plenty of traffic on the roadway, the subject offence was non-criminal in nature, and the Honda was well ahead of the cruiser.”

But the vehicle they had been chasing ran a red light and struck another car in the intersection of Scarborough Golf Club Road and Lawrence Avenue East.

“Regrettably, though the Honda driver had every opportunity to moderate his reckless driving, he chose to drive into an intersection on a red light causing death and serious injury to a husband and wife, respectively,” Martino wrote in the report.

No one from the vehicle being investigated by police sustained serious injuries, according to a previous SIU report.

“On this record, in the context of an extremely brief engagement between the cruiser and the Honda — under 30 seconds and about one kilometre — I am satisfied on reasonable grounds that the manner in which the (subject officer) operated the police cruiser fell well within the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law,” Martino said in the report.

Initially, the SIU said five investigators, two forensic investigators and one collision reconstructionist were assigned to the incident. The offences being investigated were the dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm and dangerous operation causing death.

“In the result, as the (subject officer) neither caused nor contributed to the collision between the Honda and the (victims’) vehicle in any manner that might attract criminal sanction, there is no basis for proceeding with charges in this case and the file is closed,” Martino said.

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The SIU is a provincial agency that investigates incidents involving police in which a person is killed, seriously injured or there are accusations of sexual assault.

Jan. 3, 2020 — Update: This story has been changed from a previously published version to add quotes from SIU director Joseph Martino

Margaryta Ignatenko is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @MargarytaIgnat1

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