Police cleared in IIU probe
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2023 (712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba has cleared a Brandon Police Service officer of wrongdoing after consulting a use-of-force expert.
The IIU report details the police watchdog’s investigation of a BPS officer’s actions in December 2022 when police were interacting with a man in a McDonald’s restaurant. Police were called to the restaurant after two people refused to leave, despite the restaurant being closed.
The man, who required the use of a walker and was intoxicated at the time, refused to leave the restaurant and when officers were assisting him in leaving, the man’s arm was broken.
IIU investigators interviewed the officer, two witness officers, the man who sustained the injury, and three other witnesses. Video surveillance footage from the restaurant was also viewed by investigators.
The man told police that the only thing he remembers of the incident is having coffee at the restaurant and then waking up in the hospital. A witness said that she was inside the McDonald’s with the man when police officers told them to leave and threw the man off of his chair, stomping on his arm.
Two professionals interviewed by investigators were emergency responders who said the man was well known to BPS and EMS and was usually very intoxicated. They said he was intoxicated that night and that the injury happened when police were trying to lift the man up to help him to his walker.
In his interview with investigators, the officer said the man was argumentative and uncooperative, and refused to stand up. At one point, the officer put the man’s right arm behind his back “in hopes that a little bit of pain would convince [the man] to stand up under his own power or with the assistance of police.”
The surveillance footage shows officers attempting to lift the man and the officer taking hold of the man’s arm that has been bent backwards, the report said.
The use-of-force expert reviewed the evidence and said the video could not determine whether the man’s arm broke as a result of the officer’s actions or if the man dropping his own weight down caused the injury.
“Applying a joint lock for some pain stimulus after verbal attempts and muscular power failed would be sound, well founded, reasonable, necessary and consistent with training and proportionate with similarly trained law enforcement officers in a Canadian policing context,” the expert said.
Ultimately, the IIU determined that the use of force was reasonable and that no charges would be laid against the officer.
The full report can be viewed online at iiumanitoba.ca/
» gmortfield@brandonsun.com
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