The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) is investigating the death of a man after he was tasered and punched by Calgary Police Service officers.
According to a Wednesday afternoon release, CPS officers responded to a call on the non-emergency line to a hotel in south Calgary to remove an “unwanted person from the lobby.”
An officer (identified as Officer 1 in the release), who was alone at the time, arrived first and saw the man standing near the check-in desk. The officer then ordered the man to leave the lobby and issued commands like “out” and “walk out,” the ASIRT release said.
The man continued to stand by the check-in desk and acted “in a confused fashion, such as attempting to pick up items off the floor that were clearly non existent,” ASIRT said.
Around 30 seconds after speaking with the man, Officer 1 pointed his conducted energy weapon at the man and ordered him to leave the lobby, the release read. The man raised his hands and said he would leave the area and asked the officer not to shoot him.
ASIRT said the man began to leave the lobby by walking towards the main door while the officer was still pointing the weapon at him, saying, “I don’t want to die.” The officer ordered the man to stop talking and continued to point the weapon at him.
At this point, two other officers (Officer 2 and Officer 3) arrived and began walking towards the man through the main doors. The man stopped walking but continued to state that he didn’t want to die, ASIRT said.
Officer 1 holstered his taser and attempted to grab the man, who physically resisted being grabbed. The man was then tackled by Officer 2 who then punched the man in the head while on the ground, according to Wednesday’s release.
Officers 1 and 3 then used their conducted energy weapons, according to the release. The three officers and the man had a “physical altercation” for almost four minutes after that, where the officers used “various uses of force,” the release added. The man was then restrained, and handcuffs and leg restraints were used.
Several other CPS officers then arrived at the scene, ASIRT said. The man was bleeding from the mouth and vomited, and a spit mask was applied while the man was lying face down on the floor.
Paramedics arrived and used a sedative seven minutes after the man was restrained. He was still lying face down when the sedative was administered.
The man lay down for another three minutes until officers noted that he was unresponsive. He died at the scene.
ASIRT said the man did not have any weapons and had his hands were in full view for the entire incident. The man was also not identified during the incident, nor was he ever told he was being detained or under arrest, the release added.
ASIRT said it will investigate the use of force by the officers and no additional information will be released.
