Ottawa man falls to his death from 12th-floor apartment during police drug raid

Anthony Aust

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ontario’s civilian police watchdog, is probing the circumstances of the death of  Anthony Aust, a 23- year old man who fell from his 12th floor apartment last week during an Ottawa police drug raid in which tactical officers used a controversial  ” dynamic entry” to search the apartment.

The SIU said that shortly after police officers  breached the door of the apartment, the man fell from the window to the ground below.

He was pronounced dead on the scene.

In  a home security video, Ottawa police tactical officers can be seen first forcing the front door open, then yelling, “Police! Don’t move,” before tossing in a flash grenade that filled the front entryway with light and smoke. The video then captures at least eight officers coming into the apartment, all with their guns drawn.

Raymond Aust,  brother of the dead man, said he (his dead brother)  was the only target of the raid..

“Yet the police felt it was necessary to send a unit and surround the building as well?”

He said he wants to know what happened in the final moments of his brother’s life.

“With so many officers, why wasn’t one able to try and stop him from opening his window and jumping out? ” he asked.

His brother was on bail at the time of this death.

He was facing  eleven. charges after allegedly being caught with drugs and a gun during a traffic stop last January.