Mountie cleared in violent arrest caught on camera: ASIRT

High Level RCMP say a single officer responded to a complaint of intoxicated people causing a disturbance at Flamingo Inn on May 11, 2022. Upon arrival, the officer tried to arrest an intoxicated male of unknown age. Police say he refused to follow instructions, and a "physical interaction occurred," which was captured on video and published online by members of the public.

Alberta’s police watchdog has cleared a Mountie accused of assault after video of an arrest was circulated by media outlets.

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The arrest took place at the Flamingo Inn in High Level on May 11, 2022, after RCMP received reports of a group of intoxicated men causing issues.

According to the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), a lone female RCMP officer approached the three men and told them they were under arrest for being intoxicated in public.

ASIRT said the officer knew the men by name because she had released them all from police custody earlier that morning; two of the men complied, but a third resisted arrest.

The man who resisted arrest was known by the officer to be “assaultive” when drunk, ASIRT said, and he had elbowed her in the mouth and split her lip during a previous interaction.

Multiple videos taken during the arrest show the officer kneeing and punching the man several times in the midsection and back before another officer arrived and helped arrest the man, ASIRT said.

While the use of force did not appear to cause “significant” injury to the man, ASIRT was asked to investigate after video was given to media outlets who aired it. ASIRT said none of the several videos of the arrest showed the entire interaction.

A report released Thursday cleared the officer of any wrongdoing. It found she was within reason to arrest the men and used justified force after the man, who was larger than her and had injured her previously, refused to be handcuffed.