A man charged with obstructing a peace officer who was attempting to make an arrest outside a North York LCBO last week says he was only trying to defuse a volatile situation and help a man who he believed was in danger.
Video of the arrest, which took place outside an LCBO at Sheridan Mall on Nov. 27, showed the man reaching out and grabbing onto the suspect, who was being held to the ground by the officer.
The video then shows the officer repeatedly telling people around him to stay back, however the crowd does not appear to heed the officer’s warnings and many of them are heard shouting obscenities.
At one point, the video also appears to show the man accused of obstruction briefly making contact with the police officer in an attempt to get his attention, however the interaction is fleeting.
“I am not about to obstruct justice,” the man, identified as Andrew Burger, told reporters on Thursday. “I am with the law, I respect the law I want to help the cops but what I saw was a life in danger.”
Officer was on paid duty
Toronto Police have previously said that the officer was on paid duty at the liquor store when he first noticed a man acting erratically and requested his identification.
After the man refused to provide ID and the officer began to present him with a trespass notice, police said that he struck the officer in his chest area.
Speaking with reporters outside his North York store, Burger said he did not see any of the events that led up to the interaction but nonetheless felt it necessary to act when he heard the suspect say that he was unable to breathe.
“When the jacket was over his face, the young man cried out ‘I can’t breathe’ so I got a little excited and said ‘Come on, come on officer, you are going to take a life here. I am going to help you to arrest him but bring him up,’” he said.
The suspect who was denied entry into the store was charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest while Burger was charged with obstructing a peace officer.
As Burger defended his actions to reporters on Thursday, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack fielded questions from CTV News a few feet away and brushed aside a suggestion that the suspect being arrested was in danger.
“If that was his concern he should have been videotaping it or whatever he wanted to do but not obstructing it,” he said. “He can’t just put his hands on that officer without any context and without any understanding of what happened prior to. It is just not acceptable.”
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