Alex Fisher (27) was badly injured when Surrey RCMP pulled him from his bike, slamming his face on the ground, on February 8, 2021, in a case of mistaken identity. On December 1, the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) announced that they would not be referring charges to Crown.
Fisher said he was riding his bike in the Guildford area, when an officer “pulled over beside him in his vehicle with his police lights on.” The officer then got out of his vehicle and “yelled something” at Fisher who slowed down “but continued biking away from the officer.”
The victim told the IIO that he was then “hit several times" before being placed in handcuffs, when another officer arrived during the arrest. Shortly afterwards the officers received a photo of the suspect and “discovered (the man) was not who police were looking for.”
Fisher reportedly said he was "not sure if his injuries occurred when the officer hit him, or whether he was struck by a pole when being removed from his bike.” He also added that could not remember all of the “details of the use of force clearly because he believed that he had blacked out for a second.”
The IIO seems to have used this against Fisher. IIO director Ronald MacDonald reported that it is “quite possible” that the man’s face was injured in the “tumble” from his bike, as if the "tumble" was not the result of police violence. MacDonald added that there is “no evidence” the injury was a “result of the unlawful application of force during the arrest, but that is more an effect of the law allowing police to do whatever they want to do. Surely pulling someone from their bike as a result of mistaken identity would not be considered lawful in other contexts. It is straightforwardly assault.
MacDonald adds insult to injury, claiming that Fisher was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is a purely copaganda excuse. He was not in the wrong place at all.
According to MacDonald: “It is extremely unfortunate that (he) ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in him being injured in this incident. However, the officers’ actions were reasonable considering the information that was known to them, and the danger that an armed suspect posed.”
MacDonald even said the cop was was “left with no option.”
Fisher had every right to be on his bike there. That is not what resulted in his being injured. His injuries were the direct result of a police decision to inflict violence.
Most of the "evidence the IIO relied on came from police: statements from three witness police officers, CCTV footage, 911 recordings, police radio-to-radio transmissions, and medical records.
The RCMP officer who brutalized Fisher did not cooperate with the IIO.
