Man allegedly shot by police beanbag guns, kicked in face sues Vancouver police
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 01:42:28 +0000
Logo of the Vancouver Police Department.
A man who claims he was shot by police using beanbag guns and then kicked in the face by an officer after being a passenger in a taxi is suing the Vancouver police for damages.
Harpal Gill, a correctional officer who lives in Langley, says he was travelling home in a vehicle operated by Vancouver Taxi when the car was pulled over by police at about 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2019.
When the taxi came to a stop near Melville and Burrard streets, several officers armed with beanbag guns surrounded the taxi, Gill says in a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
Three other male passengers in the vehicle were ordered out of the car and placed in handcuffs before Gill became the focus of police attention, says his lawsuit.
An officer, only identified as Const. “John Doe,” began yelling at Gill to exit the taxi while two or three other cops on the other side of the vehicle, including an officer identified as Const. “John Doe 2,” yelled at him to stay inside, says the suit.
Gill says he sought clarification of what they wanted him to do and concluded based on the “totality of the circumstances” that he was being ask to get out of the vehicle, which he says he then did.
But when he stepped out of the taxi, John Doe 2 shot him in the stomach with a beanbag from a distance of less than 10 feet and seconds later, John Doe shot him with a beanbag twice from behind, says Gill.
“One beanbag hit the plaintiff in his upper-left shoulder blade, while the other stuck him in his rear pocket, shattering the glass on his mobile telephone,” says the lawsuit.
“The pain and shock from being shot three times with beanbag guns caused the plaintiff to fall to his knees. He was then tackled to the ground. The plaintiff lay on the ground and made no effort to get up.”
While he was on the ground and after he had been handcuffed, Gill, who says he did not resist arrest, claims that an officer kicked him in the face three times.
Also while he was on the ground, an officer stepped on his right hand and broke the bone and caused nerve damage in his pinky finger, he says.
Gill says he was held in a paddy wagon for about two hours before being released without charge.
He claims the alleged assault was unprovoked and unwarranted and police were negligent in a number of ways including mistaking him for another person, or a person who had been involved in a previous crime, based on unreliable information.
No response has been filed to the lawsuit which contains allegation that have not been tested in court. The City of Vancouver, which is named as a defendant, referred questions to the Vancouver Police Department, which had no immediate comment.
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