City police investigate arrest aired on Youtube

Amateur footage posted online shows officer punching suspect

Police are launching a formal investigation following an internal review into an arrest on Whyte Avenue where police punched a suspect before charging him.

“In the interests of transparency, public accountability and openness a decision has been made for professional standards branch to conduct a formal investigation,” says a statement Friday from Edmonton police.

On Monday, Ivan Gonzalez, an amateur videographer, posted a video to YouTube that captured an early-morning arrest that day of one of his friends on Whyte Avenue at 104th Street.

In the video, one of two police officers is sitting on top of Gonzalez’s 26-year-old friend, who is lying face-up when they tell him to quit resisting and turn over. During the encounter, an officer punches the man twice.

Gonzalez, 31, said his friends had exchanged a joke with the officers prior to the arrest, with one friend wondering why police wore hats that made them look funny, and one officer responding by saying he always thought “gingers” or red-haired people look funny.

Gonzalez said while he was sober as the designated driver, his friends had been drinking and one had thrown a piece of pizza on the sidewalk.

When police asked him to pick it up, Gonzalez said his friend didn’t have a chance before an officer grabbed the other friend by the shoulder and threw him down before hitting him.

“There was absolutely no warning,” Gonzalez said, adding his other friend was also hit and later went to hospital with a concussion.

“I couldn’t do anything. How can I make this stop, so I started recording. And when I see the level of violence is when I say, ‘Hey guys, I have you on video.’ ”

At that point, an officer comes over to Gonzalez and the video ends.

Gonzalez alleged his friend was hit twice before the video began.

“This is not against the police. This is not against the city. This is about the bad apples,” Gonzalez said. “I think the level of force was completely unnecessary. There is no resistance.”

At the end of the video, photos are shown of two men with bloodied and bruised noses and faces.

No complaint has been made against police. Gonzalez said his friends are seeking advice from a lawyer.

Police said the 26-year-old man and a 19-year-old man were charged with public intoxication and littering.

Police had initially asked the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team to investigate the case, but the director of law enforcement said Edmonton police would remain in charge of the investigation. ASIRT will now review the final investigative report and provide recommendations.

“This investigation will consider among other things video footage of this incident from a number of sources that are separate from the initial video portrayed on YouTube, as well as interviews of independent witness(es) to the incident,” the police statement says.

Gonzalez said two other bystanders also took video of the incident.