‘I can’t breathe’: Calgary police respond to online video of rough arrest

Calgary police have responded to a video making the rounds on social media that appears to show a violent takedown and arrest in the city’s northeast earlier this week.

The video shared online shows officers arresting a man in a strip mall parking lot along Castleridge Drive NE on Monday afternoon. The footage shows several officers wrestling with the man, with one officer at one point placing their knee on the man’s head.

The man can be heard saying “I can’t breathe,” while upset bystanders yell to police that he didn’t do anything wrong.

The Calgary Police Service (CPS) released a statement on Tuesday addressing the footage after it had made the rounds online.

CPS say the arrest stemmed from a patrol officer seeing “an equipment violation” on a vehicle in the parking lot and trying to talk to the driver in the car. Police claim the driver dismissed the officer and entered a store.

The officer waited outside and when the driver came out he would not cooperate or provide identification when asked, according to CPS.

“The officer attempted to deescalate the situation and gain voluntary cooperation for what is ordinarily a brief and innocuous encounter,” reads the CPS statement. “Ultimately, the officer was forced to arrest the individual and, in effecting the arrest, they were met with resistance.”

Police say the additional officers were called to the parking lot to help the initial officer with the arrest.

The video was posted to Facebook by a woman who says the person being arrested is a friend of her son. CityNews reached out to the woman, but did not hear back before broadcast deadline.

Doug King is a professor of criminal justice at Mount Royal University and says it’s impossible to know exactly how the event escalated by only watching the footage of the arrest.

“If you’re responding on just what you see in the video, you’re missing a whole lot of what had transpired,” he says. “I didn’t see anything in the video that gave me any cause for concern.”

“If you begin to resist the arrest, the officers will use a sufficient force to complete the arrest.”

Calgary police say the person was charged with assault against a peace officer, resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer.

CPS say anyone who feels they have had a bad encounter with an officer should report it to their professional standards section.