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A video showing the forceful arrest of a man in Saskatchewan who was later released without charges has been widely shared on social media.
The province’s police watchdog, the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), is investigating after the man was injured while Battlefords RCMP arrested him on Oct. 6.
In a news release, RCMP said officers tried to stop a vehicle that had pulled into the driveway of a home on Mosquito Grizzly Bear’s Head Lean Man First Nation around 1 p.m. CST.
The First Nation is located about 30 kilometres south of the Battlefords.
RCMP said the vehicle failed to stop, and the driver was found to have a suspended licence and a warrant. He was arrested without issue.
Two passengers, a man and a woman, were inside the vehicle. RCMP said the man refused to get out when asked. The officers forcibly removed him from the vehicle, arrested him, then called EMS for “further assessment,” the RCMP release said.
A video posted on social media shows RCMP pulling a man from a vehicle during an Oct. 6 arrest at Mosquito Grizzly Bear’s Head Lean Man First Nation. The man’s sister-in-law is heard saying he has seizures. In a Facebook post, she said the man, who has epilepsy and the cognitive level of a five-year-old, had his arm broken. Saskatchewan’s police watchdog is investigating.
The man was released without charges. Later on, police were notified that he was required to receive further medical care, the RCMP release said.
The other passenger, Dee-ann Sakascootch, the man’s sister-in-law, recorded the incident on her phone and posted it to social media. Her post says his arm was broken when he was dragged from the vehicle and handcuffed.
The video shows a man in the back seat of a car who appears to be less than fully conscious, uneven and wobbling in his seat.
Police officers stand on either side of the car’s back seat. Sakascootch tells the officers the man has a disability, is going to faint, and has seizures. They tell her he is under arrest for obstruction.
The officers are speaking calmly and explaining the situation.
“We’re going to take his disabilities into consideration, we’re not going to rough him up or anything, but he is under arrest at this time,” one of them says.
Seconds later, off camera, things suddenly escalate. An officer says “Don’t you f***ing throw your fist at me, now you’re under arrest for assaulting a police officer.”
The sister-in-law of the man who was injured says on social media that he had a broken arm and needed surgery. (Dee-ann Sakascootch/Facebook)
At that point, he pulls out his Taser, and the two officers begin forcibly removing the man from the car, one holding his feet and the other grabbing him by his left arm. The one pulling his arm drags him from the vehicle, where it appears his arm is injured. The man hits the ground and rolls over, immediately clutching his arm with his other hand.
The officer announces to the man that he is “under arrest for obstruction and resisting arrest,” before he is cuffed and hoisted to his feet by the arms.
CBC News reached out to the family, who said they are not ready to comment on the incident.
Mosquito Grizzly Bear’s Head Lean Man First Nation declined to comment, but Chief Tanya Stone said the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations will organize a media release next week.
Because of the nature of the man’s injury, SIRT was notified and is now investigating the circumstances surrounding the arrest.
