Halifax officer charged in violent arrest of Black teen

Boy suffered concussion, cuts, bruises in February incident at Bedford, N.S., shopping mall

HALIFAX— A Halifax police officer has been charged with assault over the violent arrest of a Black teenager at a shopping mall — one of two high-profile incidents early this year that brought the municipal police force’s treatment of Black residents under renewed scrutiny.

The charge against Const. Mark Pierce comes after an investigation by Nova Scotia’s police watchdog into the arrest, in which the 15-year-old boy suffered a concussion, cuts and bruises to his eye, fingers and around his wrists.

Pierce was one of two officers involved in the February arrest at the Sunnyside Mall in Bedford, N.S.

The police watchdog, the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT), is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia.

Meanwhile, the SiRT also said Wednesday it had determined that a police officer would not face any charges in a separate, Jan. 15 incident in which a 23-year-old Black woman was forcibly arrested in a Halifax Walmart for disturbing the peace.

Santina Rao, who was shopping with her two children — one of whom was in a stroller — when she was confronted by police in the store on suspicions of shoplifting.

In the Feb. 22 incident at the shopping mall, the teen recorded his own arrest. That video was later posted online.

The SiRT investigation report said the incident began when a security officer at the mall called police after telling the teen and a friend to leave.

The teen and his friend left and went to the nearby Bedford Place Mall, said the SiRT report, where they were confronted by responding police, who told them that Sunnyside Mall security did not want them to return.

According to the report, one police officer held up his handcuffs and said words to the effect that, if the teen did not change his attitude, he would end up in handcuffs.

The teen followed the officers out of the mall and began filming.

The Halifax police officer, Pierce, is due to appear in Halifax provincial court Nov. 17 on the assault charge.