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Kelowna  

Cleared of excessive force

- | Story: 250215

The Independent Investigations Office have cleared Kelowna police officers of using excessive force that resulted in a woman fracturing her right knee during a police-involved incident.

The IIO is the body that investigates all cases in B.C. of police-involved death or serious injury and were notified by the woman not the RCMP about the incident that required the woman to have surgical intervention.

IIO was notified by the RCMP about the incident that occurred on February 12, 2018 at a multi-unit residential building.

A noise complaint in an apartment was made to Kelowna RCMP at about 10:40 p.m.

The landlord was receiving complaints that there was loud music, yelling and stomping around in her apartment and the landlord waited for 30 minutes to call police.

A police officer arrived on scene at 10:57 p.m. and was told the woman was “banging on the walls, slamming doors, singing, yelling and listening to loud music in her apartment,” states the report.

After the police officer spoke to the witnesses he could hear the banging, slamming doors and loud music coming from the apartment. He knocked on the door, but there was no response.

The report states once the woman finally answered the door, the officer could hear loud music coming from the television and the woman told him “it was her apartment” and “[I] can do whatever I want.”

According to the report she tried to shut the door on the officer's foot and he warned her she could be arrested if she continued the disturbance. She responded with “you are not going to f*ing tell me what to do in my own apartment.”

The officer took a hold of her right arm and advised her she was under arrest for Breach of Peace. In the report, the woman claims the officer kicked her at the back of her leg in a “foot sweep.”

An orthopedic surgeon reported that the injury to the woman could be caused by either of those movements, but also noted that a “seemingly trivial trauma” could also be the cause.

“Twisting would not be the likely cause of this type of injury,” states the report.

Evidence does not support the proposition that the force used by the officer was excessive and does not provide grounds to consider any charges against the officer.

“I do not consider that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment,” states the report.

The report does state that there are questions about whether the officer was entitled to make actual entry into her home for the arrest without a warrant.

“She was being completely uncooperative: not only was she not turning down her loud television, she made it clear she intended to keep up her noise-making,” states the report.

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