The Halifax Board of Police Commissioners will receive a closed-door briefing on an incident Santina Rao says left her with a broken wrist, a concussion and injuries to her neck and arms.
Rao, 23, alleges she was physically abused by Halifax police after she was accused of “concealing items” while at a Walmart on Mumford Road Wednesday.
On Thursday, Rao told Global News she placed a bag underneath her children’s stroller and was putting items into it as she shopped.
READ MORE: Halifax mother alleges she was racially profiled at store, ‘aggressively punched’ by police officer
According to Rao, she paid for all her items at the electronics section except for her produce, which had to be weighed. After paying for those items, then stopping at the toy section, Rao claims she was approached by Halifax police officers and Walmart staff, who claimed she was “concealing items.”
Rao says she urged officers and staff to check her bag, but they declined and asked for her identification. When she declined, Rao said officers used “excessive force” to put her in handcuffs.
The incident was caught on video and on Sunday Coun. Tony Mancini confirmed that he has watched the video.
“It’s disturbing to see two officers take down the woman,” he said.
Mancini, a member of the Board of Police Commissioners, said he’s now requested that the oversight body get briefed on Monday about how and why the incident happened.
“I want to understand, is that the right procedure? I’ll be asking, you know, if you were to do it again, would have you have done it the same way? Did something go wrong?’ he told Global News.
“A lot of people feel that something went wrong.”
Among those people is Rao’s sister, Marina Rao.
Marina was among the dozens of people protesting outside and inside the Walmart on Friday.
“I believe what happened was egregious and abhorrent and shouldn’t have happened — it shouldn’t happen to anybody,” she said on Friday.
Marina said she wants something to be done.
“There should be more, I guess, consequences for those who do this kind of thing instead of just getting away with it,” said Marina.
Nova Scotia’s police watchdog confirmed on Friday that they are looking into the incident.
“We began a preliminary review today to see whether the incident appears to be within our mandate,” said Pat Curran, the interim director of Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT).
“SiRT’s mandate includes incidents in which there is reason to believe the actions of a police officer may have resulted in serious injury to an affected person.”
Mancini says he’s not making any judgment about the incident until he has more information.
“The job of the board of the police commission is to be an overseer of the police department so when an incident like this happens we need to make sure all eyes are on it from both sides of the equation,” Mancini said.
The board does not have the ability to force any action but Mancini said it’s important they review what happened.
READ MORE: SiRT now investigating allegations of police assault against woman in Halifax Walmart
Halifax police Chief Dan Kinsella has committed to personally investigating the incident and will be at the Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Monday.
However, the discussion will take place in-camera as the incident remains under investigation.
Mancini says that if the investigation does find wrongdoing, he hopes residents won’t paint all police officers with the same brush.
“I’ve worked with a lot of good police officers that I respect and really do the best they possibly can for our citizens,” he said.
With files from Alexa MacLean, Graeme Benjamin
- B.C. Sikh leader ‘vindicated’ by arrest of Indian nationals in Nijjar killing
- London Drugs remains closed, says it is reviewing billions of lines of data
- How toy guns brandished by Ontario youth in ‘assassins game’ is prompting real fear
- Trump trial hears recording discussing hush money scheme: ‘What do we got to pay?’
Comments