'EXACT OPPOSITE' OF POLICE TRAINING ON THE HOMELESS Later, after the man staggered down the street, "the cop took out his billy bat and started chasing him," the man said - also not captured on video. "That's when he just decided to shove him." it looked like he didn't know the guy just got hit with a plank," the bystander said. The man, looking stunned, appears on the video to be arguing with the officer or complaining about what happened. "The guy's touching his head, looking at his hand to see if there's blood, so it must have hit him quite hard," he said. "He pulled it away so the top plank fell on the guy's head that was in the enclosure," the man said. He pulled aside the blanket to speak to the officers, and then one of the officers suddenly knocked off the pallet balanced on top.
It was a little home-type thing," he said, which tends to be rebuilt on the same spot consistently.Īt the time the police approached, the homeless man was sitting in it with a blanket hanging down like a door. It was two pallets with another one on top and a tarp. He looked out the second-storey window to see the scene unfolding. Urbain streets, just north of René-Levesque Blvd., where people living on the street congregate, he said. He turned on his camera only after seeing another officer - the second one who appears in the video - give the man a different kind of head injury, he said.Īt the time he shot the video, the man was visiting a friend in a building opposite a "half-abandoned" area between Clark and St. The man who filmed it, though, says that both officers were involved, and that the entire episode was even more disturbing than the 17-second clip shows. Two officers were present in the video, but it's unclear if both are under investigation.
HOMELESS OLD MAN GAY FUCKING IN PUBLIC PROFESSIONAL
They followed up shortly after to say the force had officially opened an internal investigation, which will be handled by the SPVM's "integrity and professional standards department." Montreal police (SPVM) said in a statement Friday that they were "well aware of the video currently circulating on social media" and were looking into the incident. "We ourselves will be talking to the police about it."
"And so what I witnessed in the video was totally unjustifiable," he said. "This person seemed harmless, did not seem aggressive at all, from what I saw," said James Hughes, the CEO of the Old Brewery Mission, a nearby men's shelter. The 17-second video, which he posted on TikTok, already had about 50,000 views a day later and had attracted the attention not just of Montreal police but those who work with people living on Montreal's streets.
he just picked him up and pushed him again," said the man, who didn't want to have his name published for fear of retribution by the police.
HOMELESS OLD MAN GAY FUCKING IN PUBLIC CRACKED
"He could have cracked his skull, broke his neck."Īfter the man got up, clearly disoriented, "the cop didn't even go to see if he was okay.
"I think it was a matter of inches," the man who shot the video told CTV News. The video, which was taken on Thursday in Chinatown, shows a relatively young man staggering to his feet after hitting the block head-first, only to have the officer push him again. WARNING - This story contains details some may find distressingĪ Montreal police officer will be answering to the force's "integrity" department after being caught on video violently pushing an unarmed homeless man face-first into a concrete block.