Police cleared in two incidents involving injuries

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team said Thursday it won’t lay charges in two separate incidents where people were injured by police using force.

On April 12, 2014, a 15-year-old youth was charged in Edmonton with arson and other offences and taken into custody. He was placed in a cell at police headquarters.

The next morning, a police officer woke him up and told him he was being taken to the Edmonton Young Offenders Centre. The teenager resisted and verbally abused the officer, an ASIRT news release said.

The youth was handcuffed and placed in the transport van. When he remained unco-operative and kicked the van interior, he was placed into leg irons by additional staff, ASIRT said.

The youth continued to be verbally abusive, so another officer placed a wrist lock on his right wrist, which is a compliance control technique, ASIRT said.

The youth settled down and apologized. He complained his handcuffs were too tight and one of the officers loosened them.

When the van arrived at the centre, police noticed that the youth had managed to move his hands, still in handcuffs, to the front of his body from behind. The youth complained of a sore wrist and was taken to hospital, where it was determined he had a broken wrist, ASIRT said.

ASIRT’s executive director Susan Hughson said the officer involved will not be charged.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 26, 2014, a Whitecourt RCMP officer stopped a pickup truck with a man and a woman inside on Highway 43 and called for backup.

He noticed a steel bar sticking out of the rear trailer hitch.

The officer noticed that the man driving seemed impaired and didn’t have a licence, registration or insurance. The ignition was damaged and several wires were exposed.

While one officer spoke with the driver, the other two stood behind the truck to examine the steel bar, ASIRT said. As they did, the driver shifted the truck into reverse. The officer dealing with the driver pulled out his gun and warned the driver he would shoot. The driver continued to reverse, forcing the two officers behind the pickup truck to scramble out of the way.

It wasn’t clear if one of the officers was injured, and the other two officers fired their guns.

The pickup driver reversed hard into the police vehicle behind him, driving the steel bar into the engine compartment, then drove forward, hitting the other police vehicle, ASIRT said.

The pickup driver swerved onto the road and swung around wildly until he was facing the officers, who had to take cover, then drove away. He and his passenger were later arrested without incident.

One of the shots fired struck the driver in the arm, causing an open fracture that required surgery. A second shot grazed the passenger’s torso.

Police later determined the driver and passenger had taken methamphetamines and the truck was stolen. Additional drugs were found inside the truck.

ASIRT said the driver’s actions placed two police officers at risk of death or serious injury. They stopped firing within seconds, once they saw the third officer was safe and unharmed. The two officers were entitled to use potentially lethal force to protect themselves and acted reasonably, ASIRT concluded.