Five Victoria police officers injured on job in two days

One officer hurt while arresting man who allegedly assaulted PM’s guard

Victoria police officers have suffered a rash injuries in the line of duty, including an injury during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Thursday visit.

An officer was hurt while arresting a man who had allegedly assaulted a member of Trudeau’s security detail outside the Canadian Coast Guard station in James Bay, said Victoria police Const. Matt Rutherford.

The officer has since returned to work, while the suspect has been released on a promise to appear in court.

Police said their investigation of the incident is in its early stages.

All told, five officers have been hurt while on duty in two days.

“It’s concerning any time an officer is injured,” Rutherford said.

“We attend tens of thousands of calls each year and a very small percentage result in any use of force and an even smaller per cent result in injuries.”

There’s a risk for injury whenever officers deal with a person in distress or conflict.

“In our downtown core, we’re dealing with a lot of people with mental illness, addiction issues, and that sometimes causes people to not feel pain and make the arrest of them more challenging at times,” Rutherford said.

“It’s a risk for any officer in any jurisdiction to be assaulted when dealing with people but we probably deal with more of that population than other jurisdictions do, yes.”

The assaults are examples of the dangers that officers face on a daily basis, he said.

Two officers — one male and one female — were taken to hospital Friday and are expected to be off work for “some time” after two altercations stemming from a break-and-enter at Victoria Camera Traders, at 110-560 Johnson Street, part of Market Square.

Officers responded to a report of a break-and-enter on the north side of Johnson Street at about 7:15 a.m. on Friday.

As officers were responding, they spotted a man fitting the suspect’s description at Douglas Street and Pandora Avenue.

Officers spoke to the man and tried to de-escalate the situation, police said, but the man “assaulted one of the officers and attempted to assault the other” before running off.

A Taser was used in an attempt to arrest the suspect at the intersection of Douglas and Yates streets but was ineffective, Rutherford said.

Instead, a struggle ensued and “another officer was injured during this arrest,” police said.

The officers were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

“One officer remains in hospital,” Rutherford said.

“The suspect, who was not injured, remains in custody.”

The injuries are such that both officers will be off work for an extended period, police said.

Camera Traders owner Anthony Frattaroli said it was a “smash and grab” in which the robber got away with only a few coins from the register.

For such a trivial situation, it’s a shame officers were hurt, he said.

The Friday incident came on the heels of another one Thursday on Cormorant Street. Two male officers were hurt during an altercation.

Officers were called at about 9:40 a.m. after reports of two men fighting at a downtown business on Cormorant.

Police say as they arrived, a witness pointed to a man walking away from the scene as one of the suspects.

Officers thought in talking to the man they had calmed him down but when they went to arrest him “he became extremely violent, assaulting the two officers in the process of the arrest,” Rutherford said.

Backup officers were called in and were able to assist in making a safe arrest, Rutherford said.

The officers who were assaulted were able to carry on with their work.

The suspect was the subject of a “serious altercation with Victoria police last year” and was arrested for resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, and breaching his probation, Rutherford said.

“He has a history of interactions with our officers,” the constable said.