Alberta’s police watchdog says it’s investigating after a suspect sustained a brain hemorrhage during a takedown by an Edmonton police officer last week.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) says the man was injured during the arrest at a downtown Edmonton apartment on the evening of Feb. 10.
The watchdog says officers were called about an intoxicated man who was inside a woman’s apartment, and she didn’t want him there. The man was the subject of an outstanding warrant, officers learned on their way to the home.
“After entering the apartment, officers arrested the man without incident and put him in handcuffs,” ASIRT wrote in a news release. “One officer placed the man with his chest against a wall while a second officer spoke with the woman to gather more information.
“At one point, the man began turning away from the wall and toward the officer holding him. The officer then took the man to the floor in a forward, facedown position.”
ASIRT says it’s during the takedown that the man’s face struck the corner of a wooden dining room chair. He immediately became unconscious, they say, and suffered a cut lip, a small cut near his right eyebrow and a black eye.
Officers called paramedics and the man was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Doctors say he sustained a brain hemorrhage, ASIRT says.
The man later regained consciousness and discharged himself from hospital, the watchdog added.
ASIRT’s investigation is ongoing.