Edmonton woman says police used excessive force during an altercation caught on tape
An Edmonton woman is calling for disciplinary action against a police officer over an altercation captured on video, but police say the incident doesn't warrant investigation.
Deanna Kelly, 39, was charged with obstructing a police officer following the incident after she was pulled her over on her motorcycle last summer. The charge was withdrawn in January.
But Kelly says the officer used excessive force during the altercation, which was captured on surveillance video and provided to CBC by Kelly.
She said she filed a complaint on Thursday with the Edmonton Police Service on Thursday. EPS could not yet confirm that the complaint has been received.
In the video, Kelly and the officer can both be seen reaching for the key in the ignition of her bike, nearly an hour after she was stopped.
He pushes her back several metres before pushing her up against an SUV. There is a struggle as he cuffs her hands behind her back.
The officer then moves her toward the police vehicle, places her against the hood and holds her there for several minutes. At one point he directs her back toward the bike and gives her a shove.
Later, at least six back-up police vehicles show up.
"I want him to be held accountable for what he did," Kelly said Wednesday in an interview with CBC News, adding he used force "without cause, without reason, without threat."
'I couldn't breathe anymore'
Edmonton police said the service has received no formal complaint but said the professional standards branch has viewed the video
"The video does not contain anything which would cause the Chief of the Edmonton Police Service to initiate an investigation," wrote spokesperson Patrycja Mokrzan.
The department has reached out to Kelly on several occasions, but Kelly has not responded, Mokrzan added.
Kelly and the officer tell different versions of what happened that day.
It was just after 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 19, 2017, when the officer pulled over Kelly in an alley at 124th Street and 127th Avenue.
The officer's report states that Kelly was speeding and aggressively changing lanes. Kelly denies those allegations.
A former resident of British Columbia, Kelly did not have the proper class of driver's licence but told him she was on her way to pick it up.
According to Kelly, the officer then told her he would seize the bike unless someone could pick it up. She challenged his legal authority to do so.
More than an hour after the stop, Kelly said she realized the key was still in the ignition draining her battery and she reached for it. She said he grabbed her neck.
"So I started screaming at the top of my lungs for help," Kelly recalled. "And he started squeezing harder to the point that I couldn't breathe anymore. Like, I had tears coming down the sides of my eyes and I couldn't yell for help anymore. And he continued choking me."
She also accuses the officer of slamming her into the car and tossing her around.
At one point, friends turned up who she had called for help. In total, Kelly said she was there for three-and-a-half hours.
Kelly said the incident has left her fearful of police and she's still undergoing counselling.
Officer's version of events
But the officer's report, provided to CBC by Kelly's lawyer, tells a different story.
He said Kelly became angry and insisted the officer would not take her bike. He reached for the key when he realized it was still in the ignition so she wouldn't flee, he wrote.
The officer said she started to scream and grabbed his right arm to prevent him from removing the key. He said he grabbed onto her.
"I continued to push (Kelly) backwards with an open hand that was around her collarbone neck area," wrote the officer. "I yelled at her to let go and do not grab. I then pushed her against a parked vehicle.
"I was struggling with her to obtain control and called for another vehicle to attend. Not knowing if AC had a weapon on her because she was not searched prior, I decided it would be best to place her in handcuffs."
That's when a group of her friends drove up.
The police officer said put her up against the hood because he didn't have a cage in his vehicle and he wanted to keep an eye on her friends.
At one point he grabbed Kelly and walked back toward the bike to take out the key before returning to the vehicle and putting her up against the hood until backup arrived.
'Minor altercation'
The officer arrested Kelly for assault, he wrote, but Kelly was instead charged with obstruction, a charge that was eventually withdrawn.
After watching the video, retired University of Alberta criminologist Keith Spencer said what started off civilly turned into a "minor altercation" that he also describes as excessive.
He notes the word "assault" doesn't seem to apply on either side.
"I didn't have a sense that she was going to ride of into the sunset or escape or anything like that, and it was a very minor encounter really," said Spencer.
"Having said that, the police are trained specifically to reduce those encounters or eliminate them and in this case it unfortunate it escalated to that point. I don't see there was a need to have a physical encounter such as what happened."
