Sask. First Nation chief calls for officer’s removal
Video shows policeman hitting window, yelling at home of man under duress
REGINA Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s chief and council are calling for the removal of an RCMP officer after he was captured on video yelling, swearing and carrying an axe into a home where a man inside had self-harmed.
Chief Tammy Cook-searson said in an open letter that the band is “very disappointed” by the officer’s behaviour.
“The RCMP’S response was frightening and inappropriate, especially toward a member of our community believed to be in duress. We had a meeting with senior RCMP officers to address the concerns raised by community members and on social media with regard to the video released,” she said in the letter.
Saskatchewan RCMP have said they are reviewing the behaviour of the officer captured on video when he responded to a home where 33-year-old Jonas Hardlotte
had self-harmed.
Hardlotte lives in Stanley Mission, about 450 kilometres north of Saskatoon, and posted the one-minute video to Facebook at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday.
The Cree man says he was experiencing depression and was speaking to his mother-in-law, who called the local clinic to check on him.
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Rob King said in a statement that police received a request for help from the clinic just before noon Tuesday after staff received a 911 call about a man who had injured himself.
King said an officer and two nurses arrived at a home and the officer could see through a window that a man was bleeding, so the Mountie attempted to get inside.
Hardlotte says the officer acted rudely and he felt intimidated, so no one inside opened the door and instead used his phone to start recording.
“I thought I did something wrong,” he said of the officer’s behaviour. “I told him, ‘I’ll wait for the clinic ... You obviously see I’m good. You checked up on me.’”
In the video an officer using profanities can be heard telling Hardlotte’s cousin, who is standing by a window, to open the door.
It appears that the officer hits the window hard three times with his fist and yells: “Open the door now.”
“The (expletive) clinic is here to check on you. Open the door or I’m coming back with a sledgehammer,” the officer is heard saying.
The video shows the officer walking away. That’s when Hardlotte’s cousin opens the door. The officer can be seen returning and walking through it with an axe in hand.
The social media footage was brought to the attention of the police Tuesday afternoon, said King, and the RCMP is doing a full review of what happened. The officer involved has been reassigned.
Cook-searson said the band is “satisfied” with the RCMP’S plan to order an investigation and that the band will continue to work collaboratively with the RCMP to discuss how the organization can better respond to such situations.