Store owner `horrified' by video of violent arrest

A video showing a loss prevention officer violently detaining an Indigenous woman in the parking lot of a Freshco grocery store in Saskatoon's Mayfair neighbourhood has drawn sharp condemnation online and left the store's owner “horrified.”

A nine-minute video posted to Facebook on Wednesday showed a woman repeatedly telling the male security guard to stop and asking why he is arresting her. At one point she says she threw out the receipt for the items she bought.

The man is asked more than once to identify himself, whether he has the right to detain her and whether he has any identification, but he replies, “Uh, I haven't got any.”

At one point, the woman briefly gets out of the guard's grasp, punches him in the face, and gets into a vehicle before the guard gets on top of her.

A second, shorter video shows the guard leaving the woman's vehicle, where she is still handcuffed and sitting in the driver's seat. She is heard telling a Saskatoon police officer the guard shoved her face into the ground three times.

Jade Acikahte recorded the videos. She said she saw the security guard waiting outside for the woman, and heard him say he thought she was stealing and would have to look in her purse. She saw the woman empty her purse and explain that she didn't have her receipt.

When the woman said she wasn't going back into the store with the guard to look at surveillance footage, he man blocked the woman from leaving, Acikahte said.

When the woman resisted, the guard “threw her to the ground with her arms still behind her back so she couldn't brace herself for the fall,” Acikahte said.

“At the time, I was scared for her.”

In a statement posted to the 33rd Street Freshco location's page, owner Chris Fowler said he's “beyond shocked and horrified.”

“As Metis owner and a father of two daughters this should (have) not happened ever. I have ended my contract with the individual who was filmed as we use a third party LP (loss prevention) company,” he said in the post.

In a statement posted to the store's Facebook page, Freshco Ltd., owned by Sobeys Inc., said the behaviour shown “is not tolerated or a representation of our values.”

Saskatoon police said officers responded to a reported shoplifting at the store around 4 p.m. and found a 30-year-old woman who was “being detained by a loss prevention officer. A previous altercation between the two individuals had taken place, resulting in minor injuries to the LPO.”

The woman refused medical treatment and was taken into custody, police said. She was charged with theft under $5,000 and assault.

The investigation continues. Brian Pfefferle, a Saskatoon-based criminal defence lawyer, said he wouldn't be surprised if the man isn't charged.

Under the Criminal Code, anyone can make a citizen's arrest within a reasonable amount of time after a crime is committed and they believe on reasonable grounds that it's not feasible in the circumstances for a peace officer to make an arrest. Reasonable force — no more than necessary — is permitted.

“If you're wrong in making a citizen's arrest, there could be criminal or civil liability that could flow from it,” Pfefferle said.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations called for police to lay charges against the security guard.

Acikahte said she recorded what she saw for evidence and emailed the video to police after giving a statement.

She said she told police the guard “assaulted the woman first,” that the woman was calm until violence was used.

“To have evidence of everything that happened so that the victim has a chance to be believed, I think that's extremely important,” she said.