A B.C. court heard closing arguments Friday in the assault trial for three Vancouver police officers.
Constables Brandon Blue and Beau Spencer along with now-retired constable Gregory Jackson were charged in connection with a May 2017 arrest at the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station.
The incident left the suspect, David Cowie, with four broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Cowie was accused of fleeing the scene on a bicycle after an alleged theft from a parkade.
The case hinges on whether the force officers used in making the arrest was excessive.
Security video of the incident shows Vancouver police Const. Josh Wong — who is not charged — tackling Cowie to the ground inside the transit station, before radioing urgently for help.
The three officers then rush in and begin grappling with Cowie on the ground.
Crown says Spencer punched and kneed Cowie six times in six seconds. Spencer has maintained he was able to determine during that time that the suspect was not complying.
Blue has previously testified that Cowie was actively resisting arrest and fighting, and that his concern was that the suspect could access a weapon.
Jackson testified that he made no notes or entries in the police database regarding the incident because it was not a requirement.
In closing arguments, the Crown argued security video of the arrest plainly shows that the officers used excessive force.
Prosecutors said Cowie was subdued after Blue’s initial knee strike, and the court should not accept the argument Cowie was resisting — as officers have suggested.
The Crown further asserted that Blue’s initial knee strike to Cowie’s chest was intentional application of force that risked causing the suspect grievous bodily harm.
“Spencer’s use of force was indiscriminate and his reported resistance mounted by Mr. Cowie did not justify breaking his ribs either by Const. Spencer or by Const. Blue,” prosecutor Peter Campbell told the court.
“The force used by Const. Spencer was an order of magnitude greater than the force used by his colleagues and co-accused and was likely the cause of grievous bodily harm.”
Defence counsel Claire Hatcher argued Spencer’s use of force was appropriate under the circumstances, describing it as “limited and restrained and purposive to a specific and important priority, which was to get those limbs under control.”
“He did not act out of emotion, he was not trying to punish Mr. Cowie.… His actions were not only necessary, proportionate and reasonable but they were laudable.”
At one point in Friday’s proceedings, Campbell noted to the judge that Wong was not called as a witness by either Crown or defence.
He then drew gasps from the defence bench when he said Crown would have called the constable “if he was credible.”
Defence called the comment inappropriate in reference to a witness who did not testify in court, to which Campbell responded by describing Wong’s account of the incident as unreliable.
In April, Spencer and Wong both testified at a coroners inquest about their involvement in the 2015 arrest of Myles Gray.
Gray died following an interaction with several officers that left him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, crushed voice box and ruptured testicle. Police testified they felt their lives were on the line.
While the inquest ruled the death a homicide, no charges were laid against any officers. Several officers still face a disciplinary proceeding by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner in that case.
Judge Jay Solomon is expected to hand down a decision in the SkyTrain case on Jan. 12, 2024.
— with files from Rumina Daya