TORONTO – York Regional Police are investigating after a video surfaced showing a York Region Transit official detaining a customer by pinning her face down on the ground.
The video, captured last Friday by a passenger, shows a male special constable standing over top of a woman and using his legs to pin her to the ground as he tries to handcuff her at a VIVA bus terminal near Hwy 7. and Yonge Street.
In the video, the woman can be heard apologizing.
A second transit official can be seen assisting the constable to move the woman and her belongings to a nearby bench.
Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas, York Region Commissioner of Transportation and Community Planning, alleged there was a fair evasion but added “It’s highly unusual for those to turn into a confrontation.”
York Regional Transit General Manager Rick Leary told Global News that the video posted to YouTube doesn’t show the full encounter.
“That small clip that was released to the media is only a very small segment of what occurred over the course of a half hour,” Rick Leary said. “So that’s what the police are investigating.”
There is a $155 fine for fare evasion in York region.
The special constable has been put on desk duty pending the outcome of the investigation.
Here’s the video:
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