EDMONTON – An Edmonton man wants to see two police officers disciplined for what he believes was an excessive use of force during an incident over the long weekend.
Ivan Gonzalez says the video he took and later posted on YouTube shows an officer punching one of his friends, who was restrained on the ground.
It happened around 3 o’clock Monday morning as Gonzalez and his two friends were wrapping up a night of bar-hopping on Whyte Avenue. According to Gonzalez, who was the designated driver that night, the scuffle between his friends and police started when his friend went to throw his pizza in the garbage but missed.
An officer who was nearby called out that he had to pick the pizza up.
“Before my friend who threw the pizza could react, the cop just grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around; and my other friend who did absolutely nothing was grabbed by the neck and thrown to the ground. And the cop just started punching him.”
That’s when Gonzalez started recording.
“I think there were around two punches before I started rolling. That was the only thing I could do,” he said.
He can be heard telling the officers that he has them on video, which he was hoping would stop the punches.
One of the police officers immediately got up and rushed toward Gonzalez, telling him “you’re on video too.” The video then stops.
Gonzalez claims the officer turned on his body camera just before that.
“You can see that he was turning his camera on because you can see that his shoulder was dark before but when he’s approaching me you can see a little flash.”
His friends ended up being taken to the police station, where the man who threw the pizza was given a littering ticket, and the 26-year-old shown getting punched received a ticket for public intoxication.
According to Gonzalez, all three plan on filing a complaint about the officers’ conduct but are first seeking legal advice.
Police have released the following statement regarding the incident:
“The Edmonton Police Service has completed its review of the incident from Whyte Avenue that was partially captured on video and posted to YouTube. In the interests of transparency, public accountability and openness a decision has been made for Professional Standards Branch to conduct a formal investigation. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was initially requested to investigate the incident to assist with the above interests, but the Director of Law Enforcement declined ASIRT taking over the investigation. However, ASIRT has agreed to review the final investigative report and provide recommendations. This investigation will consider amongst other things video footage of this incident from a number of sources that are separate from the initial video portrayed on YouTube, as well as interviews of independent witness(es) to the incident.”
Gonzalez thinks that’s a good start; however, he would also like the officer to undergo a psychological evaluation, and for there to be consequences for their actions.
“I want to be feeling safe knowing that the cops are here to protect me,” he said. “I would really like the Chief of Police to set an example to put a severe disciplinary action against these two officers.”
His video has been viewed more than 12,400 times in the five days since being posted.
With files from Laurel Clark, Global News
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