Police Chief Jim Chu has apologized to a 51-year-old man after police mistakenly arrested him Thursday morning in a case related to a suspected bank robbery.
The man, whom Global News identified as Manjit Singh, suffered sore ribs and cuts to his face when he was arrested in his own yard in the 5600-block of Stamford Street, according to Const. Jana McGuinness, a media liaison officer with the Vancouver Police Department.
"Here's the situation, they think they're following a suspect away from a bank, so it could be a fairly dynamic arrest," said McGuinness, when asked how the man was injured.
Singh told Global News an officer pushed him up against his fence, held a baton around his neck, kneed him in the neck and kicked him in the ribs. He was taking out the garbage at the time of his arrest.
Singh required treatment and was transported to hospital by paramedics. The arrest occurred around 9:30 a.m. and he was released from hospital in the early afternoon and is recovering at home, McGuinness said.
The incident occurred after police responded to a 911 call from a bank near Joyce and Kingsway. The caller was concerned about a man repeatedly pulling on the locked doors to a bank.
Four plainclothes officers and two uniformed officers responded and put the bank under surveillance. They watched as the man, who was wearing a dark jacket, hooded sweatshirt and dark sunglasses, paced back and forth in front of the bank.
Officers continued their surveillance as the man moved to a second bank in the 3300-block of Kingsway. The man went inside and then ran out of the bank, along Kingsway and turned on Stamford Street.
Officers lost sight of the man as he ran between two houses during a foot chase. Then one officer spotted the person he thought was the suspect and arrested him in a yard on Stamford Street.
"I'm not certain about the dynamics of the actual arrest other than to say we definitely knew right away once the other officers joined the first arriving officer that we didn't have the right person in custody," McGuinness said. "It's a situation where we're in a foot chase with a man we think may have done an offence at a bank, so it's not something we can walk away from. But we really regret the mistaken arrest."
Fifteen minutes after the arrest, police arrested the man who had run from the bank near Joyce and Cherry streets. Further investigation revealed no crime had occurred at either bank and the man was released without charges.
McGuinness said police determined the man under surveillance was anxious to receive a deposit into an account.
"I'm not sure why he ran out [of the bank] but the caller who called was quite concerned that he was up to something and they were concerned for their safety," she said.
The VPD's internal affairs department is investigating and the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner was notified.
The case comes two years after Vancouver police constables faced an investigation after an East Side man was seriously injured in another case of so-called mistaken identity.
The case involved Yao Wei Wu, whose injuries suffered on the early morning of Jan. 21, 2010 included a broken orbital bone. Wu, a floor installer, suffered the injuries before police realized he was not the culprit in a domestic assault call to Wu's house on Lanark Street.
The constables responded to the correct address but were not aware of the call-which came from a cellphone-originated from the Wu's basement suite, where a man was later arrested in connection with the domestic assault.
That was the finding in the Delta Police's investigation of the incident, which cleared the constables of any wrongdoing, despite the officers admitting to hitting Wu five times in the back with "closed-handed tactical strikes." Wu's face made contact with concrete when he was taken to the ground, the investigation added.
Police Complaint Commissioner Stan Lowe said there were "flaws" in the investigation and ordered a public hearing, scheduled for March.
Since then, lawyer Kevin Woodall, acting on behalf of constables Bryan London and Nicholas Florkow, attempted to quash the hearing by going to B.C. Supreme Court.
The court has yet to rule on the case. McGuinness said London and Florkow, who remain on duty, were not involved in Thursday's arrest.
In June, the Independent Investigations Office is expected to begin investigating incidents involving police when serious injury or death occurs.
Until then, investigations are handled by police departments and overseen by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.
Twitter: @Howellings
