Several police officers took the stand in Kelowna provincial court on Wednesday to testify at the trial of a local RCMP member accused of assault while on the job.
Kelowna RCMP Const. Siggy Emmit-Steven Pietrzak is charged with one count of assault in connection with a May 2020 arrest in a downtown Kelowna parking lot that was partially captured on video.
Partial footage of the incident appears to show a man struggling with two officers before a third officer runs up and strikes him repeatedly.
The BC Prosecution Service said officers were arresting a suspected impaired driver at the time of the alleged assault. The court heard that no charges have been laid against the man.
On Wednesday, multiple officers who were involved in the arrest or its aftermath gave their impressions of the events.
Kelowna RCMP Const. Regan Donahue testified he arrived on the scene in response to a call from Const. David Carter for assistance at a traffic stop.
Donahue said he saw Carter holding a man’s arm, and that Carter advised him he had made a breath demand and placed the man under arrest for obstruction.
Donahue testified the two initially appeared to be standing calmly. But after Donahue began assisting with the arrest by grabbing the man’s wrist, Donahue said the man tensed up. He described the man as resisting arrest, and at one point making a fist and trying to raise his hand “in an assaultive manner.”
Donahue said he tried to use two different techniques to get the man to the ground, but they didn’t work.
He said the man did not have any weapons and did not make any threats when Donahue arrived on the scene.
Under cross-examination, Const. Carter testified he was becoming tired before Const. Donahue and Const. Pietrzak arrived.
Carter agreed with the defence counsel that “physical encounters” like the one at issue are very demanding, and the longer they go on, the bigger the risk to officers.
He testified the man they were trying to arrest demonstrated “threat cues,” was difficult to arrest, and that Carter believed if the man had gotten free, he would have been assaulted.
Defence counsel said officers are taught that it’s appropriate in some circumstances to punch or kick someone if necessary, and that police have a duty to complete the arrest in a “use of force encounter.”
Carter agreed with Pietrzak’s lawyer that a couple of physical control techniques had not worked in this case, even with two officers present, so another “force option was required.”
The defence lawyer asked Carter, “you don’t know what would have happened if Const. Pietrzak had not intervened and not delivered the punches that you saw?”
“I can’t say for certainty, but in my opinion, we were not winning at that point,” Carter replied.
At the end of his cross-examination, by Const. Pietrzak’s lawyer, Carter agreed he was grateful for Const. Pietrzak’s intervention — and if not for Pietrzak’s intervention, the situation could have gotten much worse.
An RCMP supervisor also testified on Wednesday that once back at police cells, the man was observed to have a cut over his eye. He was extremely agitated and verbally argumentative.
According to the supervisor’s testimony, the man was put in a restraint chair and spit hood, but he was ultimately deemed not to be a threat to the public and released from custody to go to the hospital with a police escort.
In a separate lawsuit launched over the incident, the arrested man argued the two officers had “total control” of his movements and he “was never a threat.”
The RCMP said Const. Pietrzak is currently suspended with pay and an internal code of conduct investigation is ongoing.
— With files from Shelby Thom