Tasered Brampton man says police crossed the line
Posted May 29, 2014 7:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CityNews was the first to show you startling video of a man being repeatedly tasered by police in the middle of downtown Brampton earlier this month. Now the man in that video, Wayne Anderson, is speaking out for the first time and says police crossed the line.
“My whole body felt like it had been hit by a car,” Anderson told CityNews in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
“There’s no need for something like this,” he said. “Why would a person like me, one guy, need to be tasered when he’s willing to co-operate with police?”
On May 16, a visibly agitated Anderson is captured on video on his knees on a sidewalk in the heart of Brampton. An officer is seen with his Taser drawn.
“You can see that I’m begging here because I can see his reaction. He’s got his Taser out on me.”
Then Anderson bolts.
A short time later he’s face down on the ground.
“They tasered me again and I felt that one, and I heard the officer say too, ‘ Oh, he felt that one.’” He said. “I mean, there was no reason for that.”
Peel regional police say the video only shows the ending to a very difficult situation. They say it started with a delusional man walking in and out of traffic who he needed to be restrained for his own safety.
“We’ve got a situation where this male party could get very seriously injured,” Const. Theona Thivierge said.
Police instructor and former Peel officer Tanya Philip said police protocol is clear: a person must be displaying assaultive behaviour for a Taser to be fired.
“Assaultive behaviour is basically where the person is going to cause harm to either the officer, members of the public or even themselves,” she said.
Anderson said, “At the end of the day, when I decided to run, was because I was scared.”
He now plans on suing police. He denies walking in and out of traffic and he dismisses police claims he was displaying signs of mental illness.
“Anyone who knows me knows that’s a crock. I don’t have any history of mental illness,” Anderson said.
Peel police say they still haven’t received any complaints from this incident and to their knowledge no internal investigation will be taking place.
