Port Moody police officers did not use excessive force in their dealings with an intoxicated man who suffered severe injury during an arrest two years ago, according to the Independent Investigations Office of B.C.
In a report issued Wednesday, April 24, the IIO’s chief civilian director, Ronald MacDonald, gave reasons why the case will not be referred to Crown counsel for charges.
According to the summary of findings, late in the evening of Dec. 23, 2017, PoMo police encountered three men outside a pub and officers believed the men were subjects of a complaint received a few minutes earlier.
The officers observed that one of the men was too intoxicated to take care of himself and tried to convince him to take a cab home. He refused and, when officers tried to arrest him for public intoxication, resisted; one of the officers struck him in the upper body and he fell, hitting a lamp post.
Three other PMPD officers restrained and handcuffed the man, who was later taken to the detachment, where he complained of neck pain. BC Ambulance paramedics were called and the man was later taken to hospital, where an X-ray confirmed his C4 vertebra was fractured.
The injured man was sent home from hospital in a neck brace and he later filed a civil claim, the report notes, alleging unlawful arrest, assault and battery, unlawful imprisonment, malicious prosecution and breaches of a number of his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as negligence and a failure to provide timely medical attention.
In his deliberations, according to the report, the IIO’s MacDonald considered whether the PMPD officer’s actions were justified in the circumstances or whether excessive force was used.
Neither the officer nor the injured man were willing to be interviewed by IIO investigators.
During his investigation, MacDonald relied on statements from one of the men who was a witness as well as paramedics, three police officers and various data, evidence, video and other information from the scene and later at PoMo Police HQ.
With the information he was able to gather and using the Criminal Code and the BC Liquor Control Act as a basis for his decision, MacDonald concluded that the single blow delivered by the PMPD officer was not unreasonable or excessive because it was delivered while the man was resisting arrest and in a struggle with another officer. At the time, the PMPD officer couldn’t have known that the man would hit his head against a lamp post, and while there were “unfortunate consequences” from the accidental impact, the hit against the lamp post did not itself cause injury.
“None of the involved officers used more force than was reasonable and necessary for the purpose of the arrest,” the IIO report concludes.
