Black man's mistaken arrest prompts anger, debate about officer fears
Former cop says officers may have perceived threat after confusion with suspect
UPDATE: After this story was published, Ottawa police issued a statement saying they regret the stress and fear caused to Niyondagara and they are committed to ongoing dialogue with all community members.
The forceful arrest of an innocent Burundian man mistaken for a wanted suspect has triggered outrage and warnings that it could further fray the Ottawa Police Service's relationship with various Black communities, observers say.
But the incident also highlights the gravity of split-second decisions police have to make under volatile conditions, according to one former officer.
The president of the Alliance des Burundais du Canada, is calling for a public apology, better training and consequences for the officers who arrested Kane Niyondagara on Feb. 16.
"He is traumatized, the family is traumatized, our community is traumatized," said Martine Rita Sabushimike.
Niyondagara said Ottawa police officers shocked him with a stun gun during a foot chase, then he was punched and kicked on the ground during the arrest. It was partly caught on video and a paramedic call report confirms his account.
Sabushimike called it racial profiling and another example in Canada with similarities to the George Floyd case in the U.S. Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest.
"It's just a reminder that, finally, we're never safe, even in this beautiful country that we love, so we were very disappointed," she said, adding that many Burundians come to Canada thinking they would escape police violence endemic in their country.
César Ndema-Moussa, president of Black advocacy group North-South Development Roots & Culture Canada, said Niyondagara's story challenges the idea that Canada is welcoming to newcomers.
"I am outraged," he said. "We talk about equity, but such occurrences become part of a long list of outrageous acts that have been done upon Black people, upon Black bodies, upon Black minds."
Niyondagara said police held his face in the snow while pinning him to the ground, making it difficult to breathe. Ndema-Moussa views that as a form of "humiliation" that adds insult to injury.
"What is the need to shove the person's face into the snow when the person is already subdued?" Ndema-Moussa asked.
Officer safety fears could have been 'amped up'
Police have provided little information to defend their actions, except to say they were responding to a report of a wanted person.
They admit officers arrested the wrong man, but note that Niyondagara fled. He was released unconditionally after officers learned his identity.
Gregory Brown, a former detective sergeant with the Ottawa Police Service who is now an adjunct professor at Carleton University's sociology department, said it's important to keep in mind the level of threat officers would have perceived — even if wrongly — while chasing a person they believed was wanted for a serious crime.
While police have not confirmed who they were seeking, Niyondagara said police asked him about a person named "Gibriil."
Police have been looking for Gibriil Bakal — a different Black man with no connection to Niyondagara. Bakal is wanted for murder in connection to a shooting death in January.
"It seems like the officers were looking for a murder suspect … you can assume that the person is armed and dangerous," Brown said.
"When an individual runs, that's behaviour consistent with a guilty person … so that would certainly get the police officer's concern and officer safety considerations amped up."
WATCH | Part of a bystander's video:
Brown said it would be inappropriate to kick a person if they were lying compliant on the ground, but he said there might be other pieces to the puzzle that explain why officers used force that morning.
Brown said the Ontario use of force model allows "the application of distraction strikes, so causing pain in a certain part of the body, to distract somebody's attention from clenching their hands."
In the brief video of Niyondagara's arrest, an officer can be heard shouting what sounds like "get your hands up now!"
"I'm not the be all and end all on adjudicating these matters," said Brown, "but in my opinion, that would be entirely appropriate for an officer to kick somebody if they were concealing their hands and refusing instructions to comply by showing the officers their hands."
Flight doesn't excuse shocking suspect: criminologist
Others see no excuse for the way Niyondagara was treated.
University of Toronto criminologist Scot Wortley said police are supposed to exercise restraint. The fact that Niyondagara ran doesn't change that.
"It might explain some of the behaviour, but I'm not sure that it justifies it. The flight excuse has no longer been validated by the court," he said.
"So the police can't shoot at somebody or Taser somebody or strike them because they are exiting a scene."
Wortley said there are relatively few studies on the role of race in police use of force. He is the author of two: one for the Ontario Human Rights Commission and one for the Ipperwash Inquiry.
He said all of the evidence suggests that there is "a gross overrepresentation" of Black people in police use of force cases.
In Ottawa, 2022 police statistics show that 25 per cent of subjects against whom police used force were seen by officers as Black, even though Black people make up about eight per cent of the city's population.
Wortley said some believe police may perceive a greater level of threat when dealing with young Black men, even if the evidence doesn't support it.
"As a result, the use of force may be more quickly used or used, sometimes, unjustifiably," he said. "This is a big issue: whether or not there is this hyper-vigilance that can lead to forms of racism."
Wortley said there's a "distinct lack of transparency" in use of force cases.
"I think that we need to change the script if improvements are going to be made going forward or else we're going to continue to have these two isolated and polarized groups."
Police board meeting a chance to question case
Danette Edwards, acting general counsel of the Toronto-based Black Legal Action Centre, said Niyondagara's experience points to systemic issues plaguing police services in Canada and beyond.
She said it shouldn't be surprising that Niyondagara ran from the police.
"When you're innocent, sometimes your instincts kick in," she said.
"I think incident after incident teaches us that we cannot trust the police, that we cannot trust them to treat us in a humane way."
She said police violence creates trauma for Black communities.
"It feeds into that whole distrust of Black people and differential treatment that Black people, particularly Black men, face when they're just walking down the street," she said.
Edwards said police need better training in de-escalation techniques and need to address systemic biases.
Brown, the former OPS detective sergeant, agrees.
"In my opinion, training in Ontario is severely lacking," Brown said, calling the amount of in-service training "negligible."
Brown added that the case provides an important lesson about how people should respond when approached by police, even if they're innocent.
"If the police are instructing you to do something, comply with their requests," he said. "If you're falsely arrested by the police, you might spend a few hours in jail, but get a good lawyer, file a complaint, sue the officers … but don't run away."
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) said late Monday afternoon that it had no further comment to make about the case for the time being. The Ottawa Police Services Board, the governing body that oversees OPS, did provide a statement.
"The Board expects members of the Service to comply with all applicable policies and procedures when interacting with the public and to maintain the highest standards of professionalism," reads an email statement from board chair Salim Fakirani.
"It is a priority for us to address incidents that fail to meet these expectations promptly and transparently to maintain public trust and confidence."
Fakirani said a board meeting next week will be an opportunity to ask questions and seek further clarification from OPS.
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