A Hamilton, Ont., man is considering his next steps after learning the Crown dropped assault charges he was facing in connection with an altercation in which he was tasered by police in the middle of an epileptic seizure.
Marcus Charles was working at Canadian Tire in late October of 2022, when he suffered a seizure. His manager and fellow employees were aware of his condition and a fellow staff member called for medical assistance. At the time, he was walking around the store and eventually went outside where paramedics and later police attempted to subdue him. After he didn’t respond to police directions, Charles was tasered and several police attempted to subdue him.
Charles was injured during the action and told Global News that he still has shoulder pain and limited mobility in his arm following the altercation. Hamilton police defended their use of force at the time and charged Charles with assault. On Monday, the Crown opted to drop those charges.
“It really brought me down to my lowest,” said Charles, who hasn’t been able to work over the past year. On top of the injuries to his shoulder, he said the arrest affected his mental health and many personal relationships. Feeling he was treated like a criminal for having a seizure is one reason why he said Hamilton Police need to look closely at how they respond to calls where someone is experiencing a medical episode.
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“Police do so many other things and they’re amazing people, they help so many people in the world,” said Charles, adding they just need to be educated and properly taught how to deal with someone with epilepsy.
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“When you have a seizure, you’re not even supposed to be restrained,” he said.
A Hamilton police spokesperson told Global News it would respect the Crown’s decision to drop the charges. Spokesperson Jackie Penman said in an email that acting Crown Attorney Warren Milko acknowledged that while it was an unfortunate incident, officers responded lawfully and reasonably to the situation.
“Training for epilepsy has been incorporated into our mandatory training for our members,” Penman wrote.
Charles’ lawyer, Chris Rudnicki, said that police were already in possession of the correct information for dealing with epileptic individuals at the time of the arrest and their training modules were one submission used to convince the Crown to drop the charges.
“So there clearly is a training problem. The formal training materials in police possession aren’t being distributed in the way they should be and the frontline officers who are actually responding to calls aren’t getting the training they need to deal with people who suffer from epilepsy,” he said.
Charles said he would like to receive an apology from the department, but is also actively looking into pursuing legal action of his own. “That day ruined probably my whole life. I haven’t worked since, I haven’t played basketball,” he said.
His lawyer said he doesn’t deal with civil cases, but noted that in criminal court, Charles had an overwhelming case for excessive force.
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