Arrest made in Westdale incident

(Update)

A Brantford police officer has been charged with impaired driving causing bodily harm after an incident on Emerson Street overnight, when a man fell out of a moving Jeep and was critically injured.

We heard in court today that those charges will likely be upgraded — that the victim, 27-year-old Joey Flaherty, has injuries that are likely to be fatal.

The accused is 33-year old Ryan Grant. In court, we learned that he is a Brantford police officer. Several of his friends attended court, some of them also police officers according to court officials. Grant is wearing a bright yellow-green t-shirt inside out, and his friend took off his red shirt so that Grant could put it over his head. His friends were very aggressive with us, as you can see in these shots, blocking the sidewalk, putting their hands up against our camera lens, even accusing us of crimes. Inside court, they were emotional in another way. Grant seemed to be crying throughout the proceeding, wiping tears and sobbing into his hands, and after he was released on bail, his friends and he all hugged and cried.

We heard that Grant and the victim, Flaherty, were good friends. Both live in Dundas. They were at a baseball tournament Sunday and visited some bars afterward. Then they got into a white Jeep driven by Grant.

We heard that they were driving slowly down Emerson when, for some reason, Flaherty fell out of the Jeep and hit his head on the pavement. He may have been trying to stand up and lost his balance. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and the Jeep had no roof or door.

Police examined the Jeep and found no evidence of any collision. When they spoke to Grant at the scene, they thought he had been drinking, and they took him to the station for a breathalyzer.

So Grant has been charged with dangerous driving causing bodily harm and driving while over the legal blood alcohol limit. He’s out on $25-thousand bail. He can’t have alcohol or drive. And as a result of these charges, he is suspended from the police force. No one from Brantford police would give us any further details tonight.