Calgary man with autism hurt in wrongful arrest by police

A Calgary man who is on the autism spectrum has been left with two broken ribs and a bleeding face following a mistaken arrest, his family alleges.

But it’s not just physical injuries he has been left with — his family says he’s suffered mental trauma too.

“He’s just scared to leave the building now. This doesn’t do anything for his perception of safety around police,” said Tyler Argue, step-brother of the man, Reid.

CityNews has chosen not to use Reid’s last name over his fears of retaliation. Argue spoke to CityNews on Reid’s behalf.

It all stems from an incident outside of his downtown apartment on Monday, Oct. 11.

“One of Reid’s friends had called him and asked him to cut his hair so they got together at [his building] and spent the better time of about an hour together and later in the evening when his friend was leaving, they stepped outside onto the apron of the building,” Argue explained.

Calgary Police confirm there were officers nearby, investigating reports of a stolen car which happened to have been abandoned near where Reid was.

Argue says Reid and his friend were chatting outside saying their goodbyes when they were approached.

“They were approached by a K-9 officer with a dog and Reid didn’t know he was a cop at the time and he doesn’t remember them advising that they were police but he was told to back away from the building and get on the ground. He didn’t know if they were talking to him, he was confused and he really was more or less of the mindset that ‘I better go back into my building.'”

Argue says Reid then went to get his keys with his building fob from his pocket. The officer continued to yell at Reid to get on the ground and put his hands in the air, Argue claims.

It’s alleged the officers were hollering expletives at Reid as they were commanding him to get on the ground.

Reid is neurodiverse and has autism. Argue says his step-brother didn’t translate what was happening and continued to try and go into the building, thinking the best thing to do was to get out of this situation.

That’s when things allegedly escalated, according to Argue.

“After the third command, he [Reid] got on the ground and put his hands above his head on the ground. That’s when the K-9 officer rushed in and handcuffed him with his hands behind his back. About two or three officers had caught up at that point. Obviously they were in pursuit of somebody so the other officers jumped in and the K-9 officer remained with the dog about a foot away from Reid’s face.”

Argue says his brother isn’t sure if the other officers who arrived later had witnessed what initially happened between Reid and police.

“But nonetheless, [they] jumped in and one of the officers had kneed Reid in the ribs and subsequently broke two ribs. The arresting officer also pushed his face into the ground. It’s an asphalt surface there on the sidewalk and it really scraped his face up pretty bad.”

According to Argue, the officer then stood Reid up and said “I know you have been driving tonight,” to which Reid responded by saying he hasn’t driven in five years as he does not even have a driver’s license.

The officer then allegedly said something along the lines of “we’ll see about that.”

Argue says police had a witness to the car theft with them who, upon seeing Reid being arrested, told them that this was not the person they were looking for.

“The cops approached Reid and his friend and made an assumption that these were their people,” said Argue. “The witness that the cops had with them looked at Reid through the window of the cop car and said ‘no that’s not him.'”

But according to Argue, Reid was not released by police at that point.

“They seized his cell phone, his vape, and his building key fob. At some point they gained entry into the building, we’re still waiting confirmation on how they did that whether it was with his key fob. They arrested two male subjects inside the building shortly after. That’s when the officer came back to the vehicle and released Reid about 20 minutes later.”

Argue says Reid was walking away from the vehicle with two broken ribs and a bleeding face when one of the officers allegedly laughed at him and said “now you’ve got a cool story to tell your friends.”

The next day, Reid went to get x-rays which Argue says show a clean break in his ribs.

Argue says he has reached out to police repeatedly for answers and says they continue to tell him they are investigating the circumstances.

He even acknowledges that the details at this point are one-sided and says the family is willing to listen to what police have to say.

“I understand that there’s two sides to the equation here so I’m willing to listen and our family is looking for those answers, it’s not that we’re not willing to listen. We’re all ears, we’re waiting for some kind of response.”

In a statement, Calgary Police tells CityNews it’s looking into what happened.

“On Monday, Oct. 11, 2021, police were responding to a dynamic call regarding a stolen vehicle in the downtown area. During the incident, police arrested a man who was believed to be the suspect they were pursuing. Shortly after the arrest, police determined the man was in fact not the suspect and he was immediately released.

“While no formal report was made to police regarding the wrongful arrest, we became aware of allegations made on social media by someone who is related to the man who was arrested, that the man sustained injuries while being arrested. This matter is currently being reviewed by our Professional Standards Section, which will include review of the in-car digital camera footage and body-worn camera footage from the officers who were present during the incident, to determine if wrongful use of force was used.

“We fully understand how alarming it would be for a citizen to be wrongfully arrested, and are committed to thoroughly reviewing the incident, including working with the citizen once we are able to reach him, to ensure the right and appropriate outcome.

“As this matter is under internal review, no further information is available,” the statement reads.

Argue says he and his family members want to get to the bottom of what unfolded to ensure something like this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“The demographic within this building is of a protected and somewhat sensitive nature. This building houses a lot of the vulnerable population and I think that moving forward there are things that we can put in place whether it is a better collaboration between our police forces and our mental health care units within the city or even our security and physical protection agencies within the city.”

Reid’s family also believes more training may be needed in how all emergency personnel respond to cases involving people who are neurodiverse, because people in that community don’t always respond to or understand situations the same way.