The amount of force used by a Manitoba RCMP officer who held his knee on the neck of an Alberta man during a 2019 arrest was not reasonable or justified, a use of force expert told court Monday.
Sgt. Kelly Keith, a 33-year police veteran, said an RCMP officer should not have used a knee on the neck position to restrain Nathan Lasuik as he was being arrested at the Winnipeg airport in 2019.
“I don’t know of any training where officers are trained to go across the neck,” Sgt. Keith told the court. “Ever since 1988, I’ve never been taught or shown a technique to go across the neck.”
Sgt. Keith was testifying in a court case where Lasuik is arguing his Charter rights were breached due to excessive use of force while being arrested by officers.
The 44-year-old is on trial after being arrested for allegedly assaulting another man outside the arrivals terminal at Winnipeg’s Richardson International airport over a parking spot.
The RCMP has said they responded to a report of an intoxicated man who assaulted a person at the airport and then hit an officer in the face.
Airport surveillance video shows a confrontational Lasuik hitting and kicking the officers multiple times over the course of more than 30 minutes.
Lasuik said he and his family were in town from Fort McMurray, Alta.
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After landing, they were outside loading up Lasuik’s father’s car when the 44-year-old got into a fight with another man outside the arrivals terminal.
Words were exchanged between the two men and Lasuik said the other man threatened his family and children.
Lasuik said that’s when he “snapped and lost control” and kicked the man in the leg, shoved him in the face and knocked his glasses off.
Airport security video provided in court shows him approaching the man with his arms out before hitting him in the face.
Eventually, he had his wrists handcuffed in front of him as officers forced him face-first to the ground.
While on the ground, cell phone video shows one of the officers appearing to kneel on his neck for nearly five minutes while Lasuik repeatedly shouts he cannot breathe.
Sgt. Keith said this is unreasonable and in his opinion unjustified.
“It was not necessary,” he told the court.
He said officers must continually assess and reassess the situation, which is fluid. He said once Lasuik was on the ground and cuffed, the risk to officers would be very low.
“In this position, Mr. Lasuik’s ability to assault the two officers is greatly decreased,” he said.
Lasuik repeatedly shouts that he cannot breathe throughout the minutes-long video, however, the officer does not appear to reposition.
Lasuik again shouts, “Let me breathe, guys. Please, please, let me breathe.”
“I was pleading for air, for somebody to get off me and for somebody to film this,” Lasuik testified at the beginning of August in court.
“I was feeling like my life was coming to an end.”
Medical personnel
Sgt. Keith said it is impossible for him to know how much pressure is being applied but once a person appears to be in distress, medical personnel should immediately be called.
“They can only deal with what they know,” he said, and in that situation, while Lasuik could be faking distress, officers need trained professionals to determine if he needs medical attention.
Sgt. Keith said the neck is a very vulnerable part of someone’s body and while a knee may end up there during an arrest it should be moved as soon as safely possible.
“There’s no need to keep our knee on somebody’s neck,” he testified.
Sgt. Keith told the court he and a colleague recreated the incident with him playing the role of the officer.
He said while no one besides the officer and Lasuik can say how much pressure was applied, “I didn’t find that it was very easy to hold that position without some force being put down on the neck.”
During cross-examination from the Crown attorney, court heard Lasuik kicked an officer in the groin and punched him. The Crown said Lasuik had to be chemically sedated twice after his arrest and was found to be under the influence.
Sgt. Keith said regardless of what happened after the arrest, it would play no role in his determination of whether the force officers used was appropriate as officers would not have had that information at the time of the incident.
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