IQALUIT, Nunavut — An investigation by the Ottawa Police Service has determined that the arrest of a Nunavut man who was knocked down by an RCMP truck door was lawful.
A video posted on social media in June from Kinngait showed what appeared to be a Mountie knocking down an intoxicated man using the door of a police pickup truck.
Ottawa police investigators say they interviewed 10 witnesses in the South Baffin community of about 1,400, including residents and RCMP officers. Investigators also looked at third-party video of the arrest, went to the scene and examined the police vehicle in question.
The Nunavut RCMP has an agreement with the Ottawa Police Service to review actions involving police.
Nunavut Mounties said at the time that they were notified about 11:30 p.m. on June 1 about "an intoxicated male who was reported to be fighting with others."
A video posted to Facebook by a Kinngait resident that night shows a man lying down on the side of the road. The man gets up, stumbling, before an RCMP truck flashes its lights and starts to pull up next to him. The video appears to show the officer driving the truck opening the driver’s side door, knocking the man to the ground, while the truck is still moving.
A news release Tuesday from the Ottawa Police Service said the investigation found that the officer "did not intentionally strike the community member with the vehicle door."
"The vehicle came to a sliding stop on a snow- and ice-covered track, the driver’s front tire went off the track, the vehicle dipped forward, and the opened driver’s door swung forward and struck the community member."
The release said investigators concluded that no criminal offence was committed "as the applied force was unintentional."
"Investigators also deemed that that was no evidence of dangerous operation of a conveyance or criminal negligence and further concluded that the arrest was lawful."
The Kinngait man in the video was not charged but was placed in an RCMP cell, where he was allegedly so severely beaten by his cellmate that he was flown to Iqaluit for medical treatment.
The RCMP officer was removed from the community after the video surfaced and placed on administrative leave.
In a separate release, the Nunavut RCMP said it will not comment further on what happened.
The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP is also conducting an investigation, which isn’t complete yet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2020.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship
Comments
With respect to the lead story: What happened to the cell-mate alleged to have severely beaten the man knocked down by RCMP vehicle ....
That would be a lot more convincing if it weren't for the general pattern that RCMP officers never, ever do anything wrong according to such investigations.
I think my favourite was the one in rural BC where the RCMP officer murdered a man in cold blood, shot him in the back of the head execution style in his cell, and the court concluded he did this in self defence while being kneeled on and strangled, face down. So like according to the court he stretched his arm around behind him so far as to be above his attacker, shooting down; presumably he was able to do that because his secret identity is Mr. Fantastic.
But let's say the violence was unintentional. So, normally, if I accidentally hit some poor bastard with my car door . . . which I don't, and neither does, say, my wife, because she drives carefully, but say I did . . . I would jump out and say something like "Whoa, sorry, are you OK?"
This guy jumps out and, finding it very convenient that the dude is already knocked down, leaps on him . . . actually, it looks like FOUR OTHER GUYS pile on, making it hard to tell just what they're all doing, but if it wasn't violent I don't know why they need five guys to cuff someone clearly so drunk they could barely stand. Certainly it was nothing like "Sorry I hit you with my truck, it was an accident" or anything. Makes me wonder if it was actually the fellow's cellmate who beat him up. If that's how they act right out on the street where everyone can see, who knows what they get up to back in the cells?