Mounties can’t ‘be blamed’ in case where Kelowna woman’s arm broken: Police watchdog

Mounties who broke a Kelowna woman’s arm while apprehending her under the mental health act did not commit any offense, B.C.’s police watchdog has decided.

According to a report issued Thursday, an unnamed woman was suffering the effects of a recent brain injury April 26, 2022 and RCMP was sent to her home to transport her to a hospital, under the Mental Health Act.

When police arrived the woman’s mother answered the door, Chief Civilian Director of the Independent Investigations Office, Ronald J. MacDonald said, and the woman said she was scared and didn’t want to go.

Crying and screaming, the woman was not easily convinced that she needed to go to the hospital. At one point, she slid to the ground, the police tried to lift her to her feet by holding her arms and that’s when the injury occurred.

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The officer who was holding the woman’s arm that wasn’t injured told an Independent Investigations Officer that the woman had been pulling her arms back, making it difficult for them to gain control. He also said that she was dropping her weight while they tried to hold onto her, and she was “a larger lady, so the weight was heavy when she dropped.”

At some point, the woman’s arm was injured and when she made it to the hospital she learned the nature of the injury.

“She found that the arm the female office had been holding was injured,” MacDonald wrote. “A bone was broken and she had to wear a brace for three months.”

At some point after this incident she filed a complaint against the officer involved for being “overly aggressive.”

The IIO had to look into things like the use of force, and the justification of said force.

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Then they had to apply legal tests such as necessity, proportionality, and reasonableness to reach conclusions about whether it was lawful.

“Both involved officers were acting in the lawful execution of their duty in apprehending (the woman) pursuant to an order under the Mental Health Act,” MacDonald wrote.

“Both were justified in using necessary and reasonable force to do so. There is no evidence giving rise to concerns that either of the two officers used unnecessary or excessive force.”

MacDonald found that the police clearly made significant efforts to persuade the woman to go with them and when that didn’t happen it was clear that the woman physically resisted.

“The primary cause of her subsequent injury was that resistance which included her dropping her weight while her arms were being held,” he said. “Neither of the two officers can be blamed for that.”