Woman who alleges police broke her arm charged with four criminal counts

WATCH ABOVE: A Montreal woman who’s accused police of using excessive force has found out that she’s being charged in the incident that she denounced. Global’s Elysia Bryan-Baynes reports.

MONTREAL – Eight months after Majiza Philip was violently arrested in downtown Montreal, she discovered she is being charged with four criminal counts.

Philip said last November after a concert at a club, police arrived to write her friend a ticket for loitering.

Officers then put her friend in the back of a cruiser and she knocked on the door to let him know she had his jacket and that she would be meeting him at the station.

As she knocked, Philip said an officer pulled up behind her and repeatedly shoved her into the vehicle.

He then allegedly pushed her face first onto the car.

“He was grabbing my arm and kept pulling and pulling,” she said.

“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a quick motion and my arm went limp. That was the point where he hit me with his baton.”

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Philip said she was then handcuffed and thrown into the back of the car.

When she begged officers to release the cuffs because she was in pain, she said they just laughed and kept talking to each other.

She was taken to a police station for questioning and then finally brought to a hospital where X-rays showed her left humerus bone had been fractured.

A few days later, Philip had to go into surgery.

“I have 6 screws and a metal plate in my arm,” she said.

Recently, when Philip was at her police ethics meeting, she found out that she had four criminal charges placed against her, including two charges for assault, one for resisting arrest and another for obstructing justice.

WATCH: Global’s Senior Anchor Jamie Orchard sits down with Fo Niemi, CRAAR Executive Director, about what Montreal’s new police chief should prioritize, including brutality and racial profiling.

In addition to those charges, she discovered that in March, there was a court hearing held without her and consequently, a warrant for her arrest was issued.

Philip said she was extremely shocked because she had never been notified of any charges, adding her confidence in the justice system is completely broken.

“My daughter is the granddaughter of Ethel Bruneau, the tap dance queen of Montreal,” said Suzanne Bruneau, Majiza’s mother.

“Who came from Harlem, who came from the civil rights movement, who knows what it’s like to stand up for the injustice against us.”

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Philip said she is extremely fearful and nervous for her future.

“Are we becoming like the United States?” said Bruneau.

“I think so.”

Philip’s warrant was eventually lifted and she was let out on good conditions.

Her next court date is set for September 23.