Man seriously injured by police bean-bag round at Toronto hospital

A 26-year-old man suffered serious injuries Sunday when Toronto police shot him with a bean-bag round fired from a "less-lethal" shotgun at Centenary Hospital in the city's east end.

Ontario's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, says officers were called to the hospital around 10:30 a.m. on June 15. The man was allegedly brandishing a "sharp-edged weapon." Police negotiated with him before an officer shot him with the less-lethal gun "in the course of his arrest," according to the SIU.

The man suffered serious, non-life-threatening injuries.

As of this year, the SIU no longer investigates all cases where police shoot at a person with anti-riot weapons or rounds characterized as "less-lethal"—the province recently passed regulations excluding them from the definition of a firearm. However, the watchdog still investigates all cases of police conduct resulting in serious injury, death, or sexual assault.