Global News has obtained disturbing video of an altercation between police and a man that allegedly led the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to charge two Brockville police officers earlier this week.
According to an SIU press release, two Brockville police officers were called to an apartment on Belvedere Place May 19 to respond to a dispute.
The officers became involved in an interaction with a man, who Global News has learned is named Ron Stepan, a 59-year-old Brockville man. According to the SIU, that man was arrested but later sent to hospital with serious injuries.
On Thursday, the SIU concluded that Const. Jordan Latham and Const. Adam McNish, the two officers involved in the arrest, acted criminally, and charged both officers with assault.
The video was posted to Facebook by an account Freedom Media Canada. Stepan has confirmed with Global News he is the man in the video. Global News has also verified that the video was taken in a shed behind Stepan’s apartment building.
The one-minute video shows police attempting to speak to a man, who others identify as “Ron,” before jumping on him on a couch in a shed, and attempting to put him in handcuffs.
In the video, you can hear the man say “I can’t breathe,” after one of the officers forcibly knees him. The officer then responds “Well you’re talking.”
Brockville police have yet to confirm that the officers in the are the same one’s charged by the SIU, McNish and Latham.
This most recent incident took place less than three months after another Brockville officer was charged with assault causing bodily harm when another video surfaced showing him arresting a woman in February.
Brockville police would not comment on the latest investigation but did say both officers have been reassigned to administrative duties while the matter is before the courts.
Both officers are set to appear in a Brockville court on Oct. 23rd.
— With files from Alexandra Mazur.
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