The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team confirmed on Monday that it is investigating an incident involving police that occurred in Edmonton on Friday night in which a man went into medical distress.
Susan Hughson, the executive director of ASIRT, told Global News she could not comment further on the incident but expected to release more details later this week.
A 45-second video surfaced on social media on Sunday, showing what appears to be three police officers in front of a home, attending to a person on a yard.
The video, posted to Twitter, begins with someone saying they’re “suffocating” before another voice is heard saying, “No, you’re not.”
A few seconds later, someone is heard yelling “help!”
Two more people soon appear at the yard, though it is not clear if they are police officers. Flashing police lights are seen the entire time.
A 27-minute video of the incident was also posted to Facebook on Friday.
Dylon McLemore, who posted the video online and said he also recorded it, told Global News he shot it at 10:45 p.m. on Friday night. He said the incident occurred about a block south of Jasper Avenue on 114 Street.
McLemore said he started taking video after he saw police lights from his balcony window.
The video appears to show a man standing on a sidewalk between two officers. One officer then appears to grab the man before dragging him onto the grass. Another officer joins and the man in the video appears to be tackled to the ground.
McLemore said that at one point he saw the man get kneed by an officer.
Later in the video, the man is brought to a police vehicle and McLemore said it looked to him as though an officer began performing CPR on the man. McLemore said an ambulance then came and the man was taken away by paramedics.
McLemore said the scene was taped off for about six hours after the man was taken away.
When asked about the video, Alberta Justice supplied Global News with a brief statement.
“I can confirm that EPS (Edmonton Police Service) did arrest a suspect who was resistant and that ASIRT has been deployed,”Jonah Mozeson, a spokesperson for the ministry, said.
Global News has reached out to EPS for comment.
Global News has been unable to confirm the man’s medical status.
ASIRT is called on to investigate incidents involving Alberta law enforcement agencies that result in serious injury or death, as well as serious or sensitive allegations of police misconduct.
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