The province's police watchdog says the severing of a person's fingertip during an arrest in Surrey last summer was an "extremely unfortunate" injury, but not the fault of officers.
In a report released last month, Sandra Hentzen, the interim chief civilian director of B.C.'s Independent Investigations Office (IIO), found it is reasonable to conclude that the injury 鈥� sustained July 9, 2023 鈥� was "severed by an unintentional occurrence during the arrest, and the officers' use of force in this instance was necessary to take the (subject) into custody."
According to the report, Surrey RCMP and Surrey Police officers were responding to a 9-1-1 call from a driver who was concerned for his safety after colliding with parked vehicles when the injury occurred. The driver had called police "to say that he did not know where he was, and that there were a bunch of 'drunk people' around his vehicle asking him for money and threatening him," Hentzen writes.
The individual who was ultimately injured had been among a group of male bystanders identified by the driver who had called for help.
In checking one bystander's licence, the officers found an outstanding warrant related to an immigration matter, the report states. Shortly after reporting that the male was in custody, however, the officers called for urgent police backup.
Civilian witnesses interviewed for the IIO investigation reported seeing the male "pushing and pulling hard to try and get away" as the officers tried to put him into a police car. At one point, the officers and male fell onto the grass, with one witness describing the effort to handcuff the male as a "full on wrestling match," the report continues.
The witness "said that 'all three were pushing against the cop car and then he was taken to the ground.'"
Three witnesses, including two firefighters, described seeing the missing tip of the subject male's right ring finger stuck in the rear passenger door frame of the police car, the report states, noting one of the firefighters helped retrieve and preserve the nub, in the hopes it could be re-attached at the hospital.
The injured male did not appear to realize he was injured, two witnesses noted, surmising that that could have been due to intoxication. Also, none of the witnesses were able to describe in detail how or exactly when the injury occurred.
In a statement to the IIO, the injured male suggested it occurred because an officer was angry with him, and that he "believed an officer cut his finger using something similar to a 'cigar cutter.'" The IIO investigation, however, found no evidence to support that theory.
Hospital staff were not able to re-attach the fingertip, the report notes.
