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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Officer defends zapping man

Constable says plaintiff wouldn't keep hands up

By: Aldo Santin

Posted: 09/18/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Jeff Norman

A Winnipeg police officer being sued for allegedly Tasering a man without provocation says he felt his life was threatened when he disabled the man.

Somkid Boonthajit, 31, alleges Const. Jeffrey Norman shocked him twice with a Taser without provocation in the parking lot of a stripper bar last summer.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Norman has been sued twice before in the last five years for using excessive force and for an unwarranted arrest.

In court documents filed recently, Norman said he thought Boonthajit was reaching for a weapon and acted only to protect his life and that of his partner.

Boonthajit, who describes himself as a cook and runs a Laotian family restaurant with his mother, said the incident from July 2011 left him with a lack of control over the fingers of one hand, permanent numbness to the left side of his body, problems with balance, a pronounced limp and an inability to jog or to do strenuous exercise.

Boonthajit claims he endured out-of-pocket expenses and lost wages. He is asking the courts for general, special and punitive damages, and legal costs.

In a statement of defence filed recently in answer to the allegations, Norman states he and several other officers were conducting an inspection of the Archibald Street bar Teasers in the early morning of July 5, 2011, when they spotted several members of the Hells Angels standing at the main bar.

Norman said he saw one man jump over the vendor counter and leave the bar hastily and was followed by two other men, one of whom was Boonthajit.

Norman said he approached the three men in the parking lot and asked them to keep their arms raised, a demand with which only one of the three men complied.

Norman said Boonthajit asked him if he was under arrest and when Norman told him no, he went to the passenger door of a vehicle and reached under the seat.

Norman said he asked Boonthajit several times in a loud voice to keep his hands in the air but he ignored him.

"Fearing that (Boonthajit) was going to arm himself and cause bodily harm or death to him or his partner, Norman used an electronic control device (Taser) into the back of (Boonthajit)."

Norman said Boonthajit fell to the ground and was then jolted by a Taser a second time when he refused to put his hands behind his back.

Norman said no weapons were found in the vehicle or on Boonthajit, but police did find $1,700 in cash under the vehicle floorboards.

Norman said Boonthajit was released without charge. Paramedics were called to the scene, examined Boonthajit and released him.

Norman said his actions were "reasonable and justified in the circumstances."

Winnipeg Police Service Chief Keith McCaskill is also named in the legal action.

Norman and McCaskill asked that the civil action against them be dismissed.

No trial date has been set.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 18, 2012 A5

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