HALIFAX —
Halifax police have started an internal investigation into what they call an “unacceptable” comment from an officer in a video that surfaced on social media over the weekend, showing the officer as he appears to be pointing a weapon at a man with his hands up.”
WARNING: LINKED VIDEO AND SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS CONTAIN EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
The audio on the 28-second video is poor, but at around the eight-second mark, the officer is heard saying something that sounds like, “I will fill you full of f—ing lead.”
CTV News has not independently sourced the video, which was shared by Halifax activists DeRico Symonds and Trayvone Clayton, two of the founders of the community activist group GameChangers 902. CTV has reached out to them for comment.
The video, which appears to have been taken from the balcony of a building, shows the man walking away from the officer as the two men are walking around a pickup truck in a parking lot.
The officer orders the man to stop, but he doesn’t — and at one point the man says, “You’re not allowed to shoot me in the back.”
At the 19-second mark, the man drops his arms and sprints around an apartment building and out of the lot, as the officer appears to talk on a two-way radio. In the video, the officer does not fire or give chase.
Police say they are still searching for the man in the video, and have been unable to located him as of Sunday evening.
Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella issued a statement at 9:17 p.m. Saturday saying an officer was involved in a high-risk situation Friday “involving drugs and weapons offences.”
Police say the interaction in the video took place shortly after 6 p.m. on Friday, March 26 on Wentworth Drive in Halifax. Chief Dan Kinsella says police were called to the area for a weapons complaint involving four people.
“The citizen was calling because they believed that there was going to be some sort of shooting or gunplay or something was going to happen,” Kinsella told CTV News.
He says the officer in the video was the first to respond to the scene and that three of the four individuals complied with the officer’s demands.
“The video itself is what I would call a small piece of the entire interaction but what we can hear in the video is what appears to be inappropriate and unacceptable comments during a very high risk takedown that the officer was involved in. Not only was he faced with a high risk takedown but he was also faced with an individual that was not following his direction at the time,” said Kinsella.
The chief says the video was sent to police through social media on Saturday afternoon. Kinsella says the Constable in the video has been identified and placed on administrative leave.
Police have also launched an internal investigation.
The video has led to outrage in the community and online. GameChangers 902 says they are organizing a ‘Phone Line Blitz‘, and calling for community members to call the Halifax Regional Police complaint line and SIRT on Tuesday, and demand accountability.
“I don’t feel safe as a Black man, being in this city where police officers are saying that,” says Quentrel Provo, a Halifax-based anti-violence activist. “If you do not see an issue with the police officer saying those words to someone, you are part of the problem.”
The mayor of Halifax says he has seen the video and is concerned.
“It needs to be investigated quickly and thoroughly, and that will tell us what the next steps are on this, but sure it’s concerning,” says Halifax Mayor Mike Savage.
The chair of Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners agrees.
“Not knowing the full information of what’s happened, but just seeing the video was enough for me to be very concerned,” says Lindell Smith, city councillor for Halifax’s District 8. “The feeling of when you see videos like this, no matter who the individual is, anyone that has a gun pointed at them, it is disturbing.”
“Police say they’re investigating, but what is there to investigate?” asks Provo. “The video is there. It should be clear and you know the officer needs to be fired, and you need to send a message to other officers that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Felix Cacchione, director of the province’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), tells CTV News that in order for SIRT to investigate, they need a complaint from the person affected, but at this point no complaint has been made.
SIRT is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia.
