An Enderby RCMP officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation into the arrest of a man in November 2021.
According to the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO), a man was arrested by the Enderby RCMP while intoxicated on the evening of Nov. 23, 2021. He was lodged in the RCMP cells, where he sobered up overnight.
The man was released the next morning but an hour later, intoxicated again, he was arrested a second time for breaching the peace.
It was during the second arrest that the man suffered an injury to his ankle. The IIO was notified and began an investigation.
During its investigation, the IIO obtained statements from four civilian witnesses, two first responders and two witness police officers.
Recordings from a 911 call, video recordings from RCMP cells, scene photographs and medical evidence were all reviewed over the course of the investigation.
According to one civilian witness, the man in question had arrived at his house with a half-empty bottle of vodka and quickly drank the remaining half. The witness said he asked the man to leave but the man refused, trying to get the witness and his brother to “come outside and fight.” Three police officers responded to the disturbance.
At some point during the man’s second arrest he fell down, injuring his ankle. The man complained of leg pain and paramedics were summoned to examine him at the police detachment, but the man was “belligerent” and wouldn’t cooperate with them.
The IIO concluded that the man fell “either completely by accident on the uneven, slippery ground, or possibly taken down by the (police officer) in response to his resistance, and the officer was trying to support him as he went down.”
“The injury he suffered was not the result of any exertion of unjustified or unreasonable force against him,” wrote chief civilian director Ronald J. MacDonald.
MacDonald said there are no reasonable grounds to believe the officer committed an offence, adding the matter won’t be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges.
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