Two Vancouver police officers who broke a man’s ribs and collapsed his lung in an arrest in the downtown entertainment district in 2014 will not face charges for their actions.
The criminal justice branch of the Ministry of Justice announced Thursday that it would not be able to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officers used excessive force or otherwise committed a criminal offence.
“It is unfortunate that the suspect was injured but, as noted by the courts, police officers cannot be expected to measure the force used with exactitude,” the justice branch said in its report. “Even reasonable police force may cause injury. The potential for injury is always present and there is nothing to suggest that the police went beyond what was necessary in the circumstances or intended harm.”
The incident dates back to Oct. 2, 2014 when police were called at 11:36 p.m. to an assault in the 1200-block Granville Street involving the suspect and two other people.
The suspect, who had consumed seven drinks at a nearby bar, was reported to have attacked two people before running into an alley. Police located the suspect and ordered him to get on the ground and place his hands behind his back. The officers said the suspect got on the ground but refused to remove his hands from underneath his body. The concern was that he was concealing a weapon.
The officers and the suspect differ in their accounts of the arrest, but all agree that police used several knee strikes in the takedown before other officers arrived, the report said. The suspect’s evidence is that four officers were involved in the arrest, with two pinning his legs and two others at his side with their knees in his back.
He said he did not resist arrest and told officers not to pull on his arms because he had two torn biceps. He told investigators he was kneed four times to his right side before police placed him in a prisoner wagon.
“He was in extreme pain, so he kicked the door to get their attention and asked that he be taken to the hospital,” the report said. “Eventually, he was taken to St. Paul’s where he was released on a promise to appear [in court] for assault. He waited for more than an hour without being seen and decided to go home.”
The next day, he returned to the hospital, where he was told he had two broken ribs and required surgery for a collapsed lung. He spent three days in hospital.
The VPD doesn’t have a specific policy on the use of knee strikes but the use of force technique is taught in training. Officers are taught to use their knees in a “spearing motion to enhance energy transfer and cause the desired result,” the report said.
The criminal justice branch reviewed the case after the Independent Investigations Office investigated the incident and subsequently submitted a report to Crown counsel.
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