Marcus Charles saw his doctor today and still assessing the effects of his encounter with Hamilton police. His wrists are swollen from handcuffs and he has bruises and scrapes on his face and body and an injured shoulder.
Charles says he sustained these injuries when he had an epileptic seizure on Sunday. It led to this confrontation with police. Charles says he was tasered twice and several officers were on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
“I wouldn’t want to call for help if this is what I’m going to look like after I call for help,” Charles said.
Hamilton police say they were called in by paramedics because Charles was becoming combative. The police say one officer was assaulted and another’s head was slammed into an ambulance, but say the officers were not injured.
The Hamilton Paramedic Service (HPS) at first said it could confirm that “paramedics were called for a medical assist call and that paramedics treated a male on-scene and subsequently transported the patient to a local hospital.” The paramedic service said it “cannot speak to the nature of the call.”
A short time later, the paramedic service released another statement saying “after further review of the events… our paramedics were involved in a dangerous, violent and volatile situation.” The statement continues to say, “violence or threats of violence against paramedics are never acceptable and will always result in police attendance.”
The police said today they were investigating the incident.
Witnesses who saw the incident told us Charles never struck out at the police and tried to walk away but the police restrained him.
Charles says he doesn’t remember much from the time he was having the epileptic seizure.
The head of the African-Canadian Caribbean Association, Evelyn Myrie is concerned about this interaction between Charles who is a young black male, and the Hamilton police. Myrie says police should find another way to deal with people in medical distress.
Charles says he is facing three counts of assault, “I was incoherent it was the ambulance people that were supposed to come and help me and it spiraled down into something that has a bigger effect and it should have never reached that.”
Hamilton police tell CHCH News they’ve obtained video of the incident that shows the officer’s actions were appropriate.
CHCH asked the manager of the Canadian Tire the incident occured to share the surveillance video of the incident with us, but our request was declined.
Police now say one officer suffered a concussion as a result of the encounter.
