Toronto cop guilty in fake Apple watch incident where Brampton teen later died

A Toronto police officer has been found guilty of assault resulting from a 2021 scuffle with a Brampton teen who later died in hospital.

In a Brampton court, Superior Court Justice Jennifer Woollcombe announced the verdict on the lesser charge made against Const. Calvin Au. Sentencing will come later. Au had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Au, who was off-duty at the time, was initially charged with assault causing bodily harm and manslaughter in the death of 19-year-old Chadd Facey of Brampton. Facey died in hospital on April 26, 2021, after he was tackled to the ground for selling a fake Apple watch to Au’s coworker, Const. Gurmakh Benning.

Benning and Au met with Facey in the parking lot of Beryl Ford Public School in Brampton agreeing to buy an Apple watch for $400 from the 19-year-old on Kijiji. Benning was planning to purchase the watch and brought Au along as he also owned an Apple watch.

According to reports and Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, the two officers discovered the watch was a fake only after the deal was done. Then, they began pursuing Facey by car and on foot.

Benning testified that Au gave chase on foot while he followed in a vehicle, catching up to Facey and getting his $400 back from the young  Brampton man.

That’s when Benning says Au tackled Facey and an altercation ensued.

Benning made a call to 911 and told the operator he’d been robbed.

Later that day, Facey was rushed to Brampton Civic Hospital where he died just a few hours later.

The two Toronto police officers reportedly didn’t identify themselves as police officers when they made the call about a Kijiji deal “gone bad” and also allegedly failed to notify Peel Regional Police about the incident.

Neither Beginning nor Au reported to Toronto police about their involvement in the case and their actions were instead discovered as a result of another police service’s investigation.

Both officers faced multiple misconduct charges according to documents filed at the Toronto police tribunal in 2022, including neglect of duty, discreditable conduct and insubordination.

Au was an eight-year veteran of the force before he was suspended with pay following Facey’s death.

– with files from Ryan Rumbolt