Terrace Mountie pleads guilty to assault of teenager
RCMP Const. Bruce Lofroth charged after violent arrest caught on video
A Terrace RCMP officer has pleaded guilty to assaulting a young man during an arrest in 2014.
Const. Bruce Lofroth was charged after video of the violent arrest was obtained by the Terrace Standard newspaper, and posted online. He will be sentenced in October.
In the video — filmed in May 2014 — a teenager can be seen lying on the ground while being punched in the head by an RCMP officer.
Later, the young man is pushed into a police vehicle.The video was obtained by the Terrace Standard newspaper, and sparked two investigations. One was an RCMP code of conduct review. The second was a probe by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C.
Following the IIO's investigation, Lofroth was charged with one count of assault. On August 9, he pleaded guilty to that charge. Because Lofroth has been a police officer in Terrace for more than a decade, he will be sentenced by a provincial court judge from a different city.
Lofroth is currently on administrative leave. An RCMP spokesperson says the force is awaiting sentencing.
Sentencing is scheduled for October 21.