Alleged citizen’s arrest in Calgary goes viral, raising questions about excessive force
Posted Feb 15, 2026 9:45 am.
A viral video of an alleged citizen’s arrest taking place earlier in February in Calgary has mixed reactions in the comments about whether or not excessive force was used.
The edited video that was posted on Friday, Feb. 13, contains green text that reads “Citizens Arrest In Downtown Calgary” throughout. It begins by stating undercover security guards are making the arrest, and asks, “…Who’s in the wrong?”
It happened in the parking lot of the Calgary Co-op off 11 Street SW in early February, and shows a man being pinned down to the ground by four people, with one punching him in the face. The man is heard shouting, “I can’t breathe.”
The video, which is not on the page’s main feed, was posted collaboratively by the Events in Calgary Instagram and Facebook pages, which have 364,000 and 18,000 followers, respectively.
It was shot and edited by YYCBorat, a Calgary Instagram personality who happened to be passing by at the time.
“At the end of the day, I was just shocked more than anything,” Arshia Rezaei-Afsah, otherwise known as YYCBorat, told CityNews.
He says the man being pinned down was allegedly stealing before being frightened, and allegedly threw a punch, which then led to what’s being called a “citizens’ arrest” online.
According to Kelly Sundberg, a criminologist and professor at Mount Royal University, as long as it’s used reasonably and justly, a citizen making an arrest is legal under sections 25 and 494 of the Canadian Criminal Code.
“So the law allows it,” he said. “There’s lots of case law that shows thats its been tested in our courts. It just needs to be done reasonably and sensibly.”
The video has over half a million views and 1,300 comments on Instagram, and 22,000 views and 84 comments on Facebook. Many gave their opinions on whether or not this punch was unnecessarily violent.
“This guy is stealing, yes, that’s not good. But I — and everyone else that agrees with me — thought it was excessive force,” Rezaei-Afsah said.
“But you know, there’s lots of people who would take that counter route and say that it’s not excessive force.”
Sundberg says that the threshold for excessive force can vary from case to case, but explains the general criteria used by law enforcement agencies.
“You can use one level of force higher than the level of resistance being met,” he said.
He adds that these situations can be quite precarious for people who are not trained in law enforcement, because there is a fine line between stopping a crime and committing one themselves.
“But as soon as it exceeds what is reasonable, their actions now enter into the criminal realm of assault,” Sundberg said.
