Police cleared after violent arrest that left Vancouver man with several broken ribs
Credit to Author: Harrison Mooney| Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2019 22:03:21 +0000
B.C.’s police oversight agency has cleared Vancouver officers of wrongdoing after a vehicle collision and subsequent arrest that left a suspect with serious injuries, including several broken ribs.
It happened in the early morning of Nov. 4, 2018, when officers attempted to stop a vehicle driving with stolen plates on East 29th Avenue.
According to Vancouver police officers are the scene, the driver of the vehicle tried to make an evasive manoeuvre and collided with a police vehicle and a parked car, then fled on foot, where police tackled him to the ground.
The individual alleged that police then proceeded to assault him during a violent arrest, “hitting my head, kicking my face … for maybe two to three, four minutes … they don’t stop, kick me, punch me on the head, that I don’t know who’s punching me, I don’t know who’s hurting me,” according to the report from the Independent Investigations Office.
The man suffered displaced fractures of the right ninth, tenth and eleventh ribs, two other fractures of the right tenth rib and a displaced fracture of the left transverse process of the L4 vertebra. He also had some facial abrasions, investigators said.
While police acknowledged kicking the man and delivering several knee strikes, they argued they were merely attempting to restrain an individual exhibiting what one witnessing officer described as “super strength.”
One officer said the man was “thrashing around, fighting, grabbing my face, clawing at my eyes and my arms and whatever … he was fighting me pretty hard.”
Officers also said that they viewed the suspect as particularly dangerous due to the vehicle collision, which some at the scene believed was intentional.
The man “rammed one of our police cars,” one officer said. “He’s already, in my mind, used a high level of force against us, using his vehicle to hit, potentially try and injure one of us.”
While the IIO acknowledged that the individual’s allegations could warrant assault charges against the offending officers, investigators determined that the allegations were not corroborated by physical evidence, and that there was insufficient evidence overall to conclude that any officer committed an offence.
“When one considers the circumstances — an extended struggle to control and arrest a large, strong, aggressive man who had just been involved in a serious collision with a police vehicle and had immediately fled on foot — the levels of force used by the officers cannot be said to have been excessive,” wrote the IIO’s chief civilian director, Ronald J. MacDonald, in his decision.
The matter will not be referred to Crown prosecutors for charges.
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