Manitoba’s police watchdog is not authorizing charges in a case where a video recorded by a bystander shows a man being hit and and grabbed by his hair during an arrest earlier this year.
Manitoba’s police watchdog is not authorizing charges in a case where a video recorded by a bystander shows a man being hit and and grabbed by his hair during an arrest earlier this year.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said the Winnipeg Police Service notified the watchdog about the Feb. 12 incident after getting a voicemail from a citizen reporting the video he had taken.
The police notification said the voicemail was received on Feb. 17, and the caller later sent the video to police who then reported it to the investigation unit on Feb. 27, a news release from the IIU on Monday says.
The video shows an officer standing over a man lying prone on the ground as a second officer approaches, then kneels and “appears to strike the male in the head or shoulder area before applying handcuffs,” the release says.
The man is then helped to his feet and escorted to the rear of a truck, where a search is done. An officer is seen “taking hold of the male by the hair and leading him to a marked cruiser that had arrived on scene,” before gripping the man by his collar and belt and forcefully putting him into the back of the cruiser, the watchdog says.
A review of the incident determined that on the day of the incident, members of the Manitoba integrated violent offender apprehension unit went to a Notre Dame Avenue apartment between Sherbrook and Arlington streets to arrest a man and woman wanted for robbery and aggravated assault.
The man also had a warrant for being unlawfully at large, the release says.
The woman answered the door when police knocked, but during the interaction police saw the man try to get away through a back window, the IIU says. He was later found on Toronto Street near Notre Dame Avenue, where officers arrested and searched him, and took him into custody.
The watchdog says it took over the investigation since the incident involved the actions of an officer during an arrest — designating one subject officer and five witness officers, and getting information from two civilian witnesses.
The news release says the watchdog’s civilian director will not authorize charges “following due consideration of all the circumstances” in the case, marking the investigation as completed and closed.
It says the person involved in the arrest is still before the court on charges arising from the incident, and the civilian director’s report won’t be made available until those charges are disposed of.