Release:
The province’s Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) has released its report regarding the January arrest of a 17-year-old female.
Shortly before 10:30 p.m. on January 22, 2020 an officer with the Halifax Regional Police responded to a complaint of a disturbance between a 17-year-old female and her mother at a residence in Dartmouth. The mother wanted the female, the Affect Party (AP), who was being verbally abusive towards her and her boyfriend, removed from the residence. Upon arrival, the officer heard shouting and screaming coming from inside the home. When he entered the home, he found the AP was screaming and cursing at her mother.
The officer tried to defuse the situation by calmly talking to the parties but was unsuccessful. The AP would not calm down and was becoming physically aggressive towards her mother’s boyfriend. The officer radioed for assistance.
The second officer, the Subject Officer (SO) arrived and both officers tried to calm the AP down, but she refused to cooperate and began kicking items in the kitchen area and moving away from the officers. The officers held on to her arms and attempted to place her in handcuffs, but she resisted and lunged forward kicking items and moving towards her mother’s boyfriend.
When the officers attempted to put the AP’s arms behind her back to handcuff her and arrest her for breaching the peace, she continued to resist. The SO pushed on AP’s shoulder as he was trying to pull her arm behind her back when he heard a pop and immediately released the pressure on her arm.
EHS was called. The AP would not cooperate with the paramedics. She was taken to the hospital where x-rays showed that she had suffered a broken bone in her upper arm.
The evidence showed the police had the right to arrest the youth and that they used reasonable force to carry out that arrest. Unfortunately, the AP suffered a broken arm during the struggle. In these circumstances there are no grounds to consider charges against the officer.
The full report is available at http://sirt.novascotia.ca.
SIRT is responsible for investigating all serious incidents involving police in Nova Scotia. Investigations are under the direction and control of independent civilian director Felix Cacchione, who is solely responsible for decisions respecting the laying of any charge.