Police officer forgot to record arrest of Ibrahim Ali, jury trial hears

The police officer who arrested a man accused of murdering a Burnaby teen forgot to switch on a body-mounted recorder during the arrest, saying he lost his train of thought due to a nearby vehicle crash.

Burnaby RCMP Const. Jason Cutler, the officer who arrested Ibrahim Ali, recounted his experiences arresting the accused during cross-examination at Ali's first-degree murder trial.

Cutler said he was a junior officer on the day of the arrest, having been in the RCMP for about 19 months. He testified that he was briefed on Ali's whereabouts the morning of Sept. 7, 2018, by officers from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).

Cutler and a fellow officer were tasked with pulling over a vehicle Ali was believed to be in, and arresting him. They pulled over a blue-grey Dodge Caravan around 11:30 a.m. on Burnaby's Imperial Street near the Metrotown area.

Cutler told defence lawyer Kevin McCullough that he had prepared to audio record Ali's arrest, including the reading of his charter rights, with a recorder that was mounted on his body. He said audio records of arrests are best practice to ensure the rights were read to the suspect. There were no mounted body cameras on the officers.

However, shortly after the vehicle was pulled over, another police car crashed into an uninvolved bystander vehicle. Cutler said he jumped back into his own car for safety. He said he then exited and carried out the arrest.

Amidst the chaotic scene, Cutler said he lost his train of thought and never switched on the audio recorder. He said he read Ali his charter rights, and Ali responded "to the effect of, 'no English.'"

"I realized once Mr. Ali was placed inside the vehicle ... I pulled the recorder out to turn it off, and realized I had not recorded it," said Cutler.

Cutler said Ali was co-operative and there was no struggle. The suspect, who speaks Arabic and Kurdish, was then left with two translating officers Cutler believed to have explained the situation to him.

Prosecutors have claimed a 13-year-old girl, whose name is protected by a publication ban, was passing through Burnaby's Central Park on July 18, 2017. She was on a trail, likely wearing earbuds, when she was attacked and dragged into the woods before she was sexually assaulted and strangled.

Ali has plead not guilty to first degree murder charges.

Cell phone surveillance

Prosecutors said Ali's phone records will show that he was in Burnaby the day the victim was killed.

On Wednesday, the jury watched a video of how Ali's cell phone was handled by police shortly after his arrest.

Officers placed it on a table inside the Burnaby RCMP detachment, where it sat for more than an hour. The jury watched the entirety of the footage of the phone sitting there before an officer places it in a bag.

Cutler said the footage showed "continuity" of the piece of evidence, meaning it wasn't tampered with.

A pair of other police witnesses testified to their handling of the device, which they said was kept in a secure RCMP locker.