A police incident in Williams Lake is being investigated by the Independent Investigations Office of BC.
Marten Youssef, the Director of Public Engagement and Policy with the IIO, says Williams Lake RCMP responded to a complaint of a male who was allegedly drinking in public at a bus stop on 7th Avenue North.
Youssef says the officers approached the male and during his arrest he suffered serious injury and was taken to hospital, which is when they were called in.
We asked Youssef how long the investigation would take.
He says it depends as since 2012 they have received in excess of 900 notifications, but they have only ended up investigating about 25 percent of them to completion.
“for an incident like this if there was no serious harm we would release jurisdiction back to the police, if there was no connection between the serious harm and any actions of police we would also be releasing jurisdiction. it’s only in incidents where there is serious harm that we continue our investigation, and incidents of course where there is serious harm and a connection back to police that we investigate to conclusion.
Youssef says in this case they believe that there was a civilian witness at the bus stop at the time of this man’s arrest.
They are asking that person, or anyone else who may have witnessed this incident, to call them at 1-855-446-8477.