No charges will be laid against a Lethbridge police officer in connection to a 2018 incident outside of a Halloween party. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team investigated the officer’s use of force after a video circulated showing him grabbing a person by the throat and punching them in the face.
Police were called to the party on Oct. 28, 2018 multiple times between 11:57 p.m. and around 1:30 a.m. One of the 911 callers said there was “blood on the walls, people fighting, people with baseball bats, people trashing the building, alcohol and drugs involved, injured people, and someone with a gun.”
The ASIRT investigation involved interviews with witnesses and video footage of the incident. The officer in question did not agree to an interview with investigators but provided a statement and notes as part of his police file.
According to civilian witnesses and video footage, the officer grabbed a person by the throat, who one witness said was believed to be the aggressor in a fight, and punched them in the face before being tackled by another person.
A witness video referenced in the investigation shows the officer sitting on the person’s chest while yelling for people surrounding them to back up.
In his statement, the officer said the person stepped in front of him before the altercation — the ASIRT report points out the video shows the officer going around a group to get to the person. The officer also claims he “threw a check” at the person but the report states what he did was “grab the AP (affected person) by the throat, push him and then punch him in the face.”
The report notes the officer was not truthful in his statement or notes on the police file.
“There were therefore reasonable grounds to believe that an offence may have been committed by the SO and, as required by the Police Act, this matter was referred to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service (ACPS) on February 22, 2023 for an opinion on whether charges should be laid,” it says. “The ACPS provided an opinion to ASIRT that recommended no charges against the SO as a prosecution was not in the public interest due to the lengthy delay. ASIRT acknowledges this delay and has recently undertaken steps to ensure, as best as possible, that when grounds exist for the executive director to send a file to ACPS it is sent as soon as possible.”
The report notes the evidence shows an “unprovoked assault” by the officer that was “not proportionate, necessary, or reasonable on the evidence they provided.”