Ian Bailey, Vancouver, B.C. (Globe and Mail) – Two police officers – one a member of the RCMP and the other with the transit police – have been charged with assault after a 73-year-old man was tasered in a hospital last April.
Both police forces said on Monday that the victim suffered a facial cut requiring stitches after the Mountie, an officer from the Surrey detachment, gave him one jolt from a taser in “push-stun” mode.
The victim was in RCMP custody after police responded to a report of a man armed with a knife causing a disturbance at a residence. The man was apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital for treatment and assessment.
The officer from the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service was on duty at the hospital on another matter.
“He became involved in the incident as a result of his presence there,” Inspector David Hansen of the transit police said in an interview Monday.
RCMP Constable Mitchell Spears, who has two years experience as a Mountie, has been charged with one count of assault and one count of assault with a weapon.
Constable Ken Jansen, a member of the transit police for three years, has been charged with assault.
Both men have been suspended with pay.
“It’s troubling for all of us,” said Insp. Hansen. “Allegations like this, coming out publicly, shake the public’s confidence in the police. We’re confident in the process and the criminal court process.”
He noted that members of the transit police have tasers, but said he did not know whether the transit officer had one at the time.
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