Waterloo region’s police chief is praising officers involved in a dramatic takedown of a hatchet-wielding man in the middle of a busy road in Kitchener, Ont., that ended with no one being hurt.
On Feb. 5 around 5:20 p.m. ET near Strasburg and Block Line roads, an officer on active patrol was alerted by a licence plate scanner of a disqualified driver.
The officer tried to pull over the driver, who attempted to evade police and was hit by another vehicle after running a red light, police said.
The moments after the collision — when the man exits the vehicle and begins to attempt to fight the officer — were caught on video.
Chief Mark Crowell of Waterloo Regional Police weighs in on a viral video of a dramatic standoff between officers and a Kitchener man. The man is seen pulling out a hatchet and walking towards an officer. CBC K-W’s Karis Mapp attended a media briefing on Monday at police headquarters in Cambridge.
In the video, which has now gone viral, the man can be seen pinned to the ground by the officer, who attempts to use a conducted energy device that ended up failing. The man then pushes the officer off and gets back on his feet. The video shows the man going to his truck and grabbing a hatchet.
The man confronts the officer with the hatchet in hand and the officer draws his gun. But instead of firing, the officer keeps his distance and starts talking to the man — a move described by Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) Chief Mark Crowell as “thoughtfulness” and “compassion.”
“I know that the officer has spoken to us and reinforced he was really trying to reach the person at a personal and emotional level to stop them from fighting,” Crowell told reporters at a WRPS roundtable on Monday.
“I can tell you that we’re really proud of the actions taken, the bravery and also the thoughtfulness, the compassion.”
Ultimately, the man was taken down by the second successful attempt with the conducted energy device. Police said he was not injured and therefore the Ontario police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, was not called in.
Man faces several charges
A 27-year-old Kitchener man was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, assaulting police, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer with a weapon, disarming a police officer and dangerous operation of a vehicle.
The man has been held for a bail hearing.
Crowell said officers with WRPS are dealing with “dynamic challenging situations” on a daily basis.
“They just don’t always go viral in the way that this one did,” he said, adding the officer was just following their training to the best of their abilities, and in this case, there was a “great outcome” that was “captured in crystal clarity on video.”
It’s unclear if the man in the video was intoxicated or having a mental health crisis, but Crowell said taking that into account is part of the de-escalation approach.
“Oftentimes they need a health-care intervention and we are there in a front-line response policing capacity to apply the law. But we’re also recognizing that if there is an ability to de-escalate, that’s where we want to go in every instance.”
Policing expert praises de-escalation efforts
A Canadian expert in policing watched the video and said it was an “exemplary example of a de-escalation technique.”
“I’m actually looking at possibly incorporating this video into the course materials as an example of how this should be done,” said Scott Blandford, associate professor and co-ordinator for the policing programs at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Blandford, a 30-year police veteran, said officers aren’t looking to get into these types of situations.
“They’re only human and they run through the same levels of emotions that anyone else would in such a serious confrontation, so for them to be able to manage that, and utilize their tools and their training to bring a successful conclusion with nobody being hurt, I think is a testament to that officer,” he said.
The only time Blandford was worried about the officer, and where he said he would have been authorized to used lethal force, was when the officer was backing up while the man was coming toward him with the hatchet.
“He was backing up somewhat blindly into traffic that was still coming towards him, which presents a danger as well,” Blandford said.
He said the officer had to be aware of many obstacles to shooting his gun. In this case, the scene was in the middle of a busy road with stopped traffic all around. Nearby, there was a gas station that could have been damaged in gunfire.
“At no time did I see the public around him being endangered, and the officer moved up and down through the use of force model and the continuous reassessment of the situation, just as the model’s designed to do and just as he’s trying to do,” Blandford explained.
