RCMP officer charged with assault after pinning man's neck in arrest at Winnipeg airport
'Let me breathe,' man can be heard pleading with officers in video
WARNING: This story contains video and details that readers may find disturbing.
A Manitoba RCMP officer has been charged following a 2019 arrest during which a Mountie pressed his knee on the neck of a man at Winnipeg's airport, while the man repeatedly cried "I can't breathe."
Manitoba's police watchdog said in a news release on Monday that there are reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence occurred.
Const. Eric Gerein is charged with assault and ordered to appear in provincial court on Sept. 26.
The arrest outside the James Richardson International Airport was captured on video by the father of Nathan Lasuik, the man who was pinned to the ground.
The footage shows an RCMP officer kneeling on Lasuik's neck and placing the man's face against the ground. The officer does not appear to adjust his knee, nor the pressure, despite repeated pleas from the man.
This still from a video taken by Nathan Lasuik's father shows an RCMP officer placing his knee on Lasuik's neck during his arrest outside the James Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg on Aug. 1, 2019. (Submitted by Nathan Lasuik)
Although the arrest happened on Aug. 1, 2019, the RCMP did not notify the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba about it until more than two years later, on Aug. 11, 2021, after the video was entered as evidence during the arrested man's trial.
Jane MacLatchy, who was then commanding officer of the Manitoba RCMP, said the force learned about the events from a Winnipeg Free Press report on the trial, after which the RCMP reported the allegations to the IIU, which investigates serious incidents involving police.
'Let me breathe'
At one point in the video recorded by Lasuik's father, the officer dismisses Lasuik's pleas because he could still speak.
"Let me breathe," Lasuik is heard saying early in the video.
"You're breathing. When you're talking, you're breathing," someone shouts back. It's not clear from the video which police officer is speaking.
A police officer can be heard telling a bystander to step away, but she stands her ground.
"I'm just making sure that this person can breathe," the bystander says.
At the end of the video, a police officer approaches Lasuik's father to ask if he was recording.
"I have to seize the phone," the officer says, before the video ends.
RCMP were at the airport after receiving a report of an intoxicated man who assaulted a person and then struck an officer in the face without provocation, the force said in a news release last year.
When officers arrived at the airport, they tried to de-escalate the situation but Lasuik became combative and hit an officer, the news release said.
Lasuik was put in handcuffs but kicked an officer in the groin before officers pinned him to the ground, which is when the officer put his knee on the back of Lasiuk's neck, police said.
Lasuik was charged with several counts of assault and his case went to trial.
Lasuik later pleaded guilty to two assault charges and was found guilty of the third and was given a conditional discharge. He was placed under supervised probation for one year.
The IIU is not providing further details of the case against Gerein because the case is now before the courts, the news release said on Monday.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/souwester/2020/12/30/winnipeg-historia-obscura
Winnipeg historia obscura
Reporter and local historian Darren Bernhardt has surfaced from the city’s archives with a set of new stories for his book The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent.
Great Plains Publications, a Winnipeg-based independent publisher, took notice Bernhardt’s articles on local history for CBC and pitched him the idea of creating a book.
The story that started it all was a piece he wrote about ghost creeks: dozens of waterways that once snaked through the city before early Winnipeggers filled them in.
Supplied photo by Jennifer Still Darren Bernhardt holds a copy of his new book The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent on Dec. 15. Bernhardt said he spent months scouring the city’s archives for stories and photos. Photo by Jennifer Still.
“As a reporter, you have your eyes and ears open to all kinds of things, so when I started tapping into those types of oddity stories, I would inevitably come across others,” Bernhardt said.
Chasing a story often started with a picture, Bernhardt said. He would sift through filing cabinets packed with thousands of documents before striking gold.
“It took me three months just to go through pictures,” he said.
Bernhardt said he wanted the book to be an equally visual history as it is a written one, using photos to springboard the reader into each story.
The Lesser Known hit the press with over 200 images. Singer-songwriter Christine Fellows made the cover art collage.
The stories in The Lesser Known are quintessentially Manitoban — for better or worse.
Bernhardt said some of the darker elements of the book demanded attention because no single story can stand alone — all are linked to broader narratives of struggle and progress.
He gave the example of Canada’s first Black Olympian John (Army) Howard, who was born in Winnipeg.
Bernhardt said he was originally going to write a quirky profile on the track and field athlete but the story ended up warranting a deeper look into the racism Howard endured throughout his career.
“It’s just part of the web of how the stories are threaded together in history. You want to put these stories into the greater context,” Bernhardt said.
The Confusion Corner bear pit tale came to mind for Bernhardt as the “most Winnipeg” of the bunch.
Built in 1966, this defunct concrete seating area — nicknamed for its resemblance to the old bear enclosure at the Assiniboine Park Zoo — lies at the centre of a perennial bone of contention in Winnipeg’s mythology: brutalist architecture.
“It’s one of the places where clues to the past can still be seen,” he said.
The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Content is available for purchase directly from Great Plains Publications or other online vendors.
Katlyn Streilein
Community Journalist
Katlyn Streilein is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. She can be reached by phone at 204-697-7132 or by email at katlyn.streilein@canstarnews.com
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