Police officer who tackled handcuffed woman to ground fired in Calgary

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A screenshot of images from surveillance video taken during the attack.

Radio-Canada

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A Calgary police officer convicted of assault causing bodily harm for throwing a handcuffed woman to the ground in 2017 was fired Thursday.

He will be suspended without pay until the end of his appeal period and will then be dismissed.

The decision was made by retired Superintendent Paul Manuel during a disciplinary hearing. The officer was found guilty of dishonorable conduct under the Alberta Police Act.

The man worked with the Calgary Police Service for 14 years.

My client was very shaken and upset, both by the decision and by its reasoning, indicated the accused's lawyer, Alain Hepner, after the unveiling of the sentence.

The police did not send a copy of the verdict to CBC/Radio-Canada, and Alain Hepner did not comment on the judge's argument.

The ex-police officer's lawyer intends to wait some time before deciding whether to appeal to the Law Enforcement Investigation Bureau.

The defendant initially received a 30-day sentence to be served in 2021, partly under house arrest and partly under curfew. The Crown had instead asked for a nine-month prison sentence.

Judge Nancy Dilt recognized that the police officer's sentence, then suspended, was not was not severe enough. According to her, the latter should have been 30 days behind bars followed by six months of probation.

However, Nancy Dilt suspended this punishment , because the accused had already served his original sentence and a lot of time had passed since then.

A video from surveillance cameras which shows the police officer throwing a handcuffed black woman to the ground made the rounds on social networks.

The Crown, however, argued that nothing suggested that the attack was racially motivated.

With information from Meghan Grant