Peel police say two young offenders are facing a string of charges after an assault on an officer outside a Brampton school was caught on video and uploaded to the internet.
According to Const. Fiona Thivierge, police were called to St. Marguerite d’Youville Secondary School on Dixie Road for a trespassing call at around 12:25 p.m. on Tuesday.
Upon arrival, an officer located two females who attended a different school and were not allowed to be on school property.
Thivierge said the officer was in the process of placing the females under arrest when one of them resisted and repeatedly punched her in the head.
The other female then jumped on the back of the officer in an attempt to restrain her, Thivierge said.
The officer avoided taking out her gun but did use pepper spray on one of the suspects.
The female suspects then ran from the officer but were apprehended by another cop a short distance away.
“She dealt with it appropriately based on what she was facing,” Thivierge said of the officer. “She used pepper spray, there were other officers in the area, the girls were not armed with anything and they were able to get control of the two females shortly thereafter.”
According to Thivierge, the officer suffered “a few bruises” but is back on the job today.
Meanwhile video of the incident, which was posted to a website called World Star Hip Hop on Tuesday, has already amassed more than 500,000 views.
In the one-and-a-half minute video, one of the suspects is seen wildly swinging at the officer more than a dozen times while screaming ‘Get the F*** off.”
Thivierge said the video was brought to the attention of Peel police by someone who saw it online.
The suspects, ages 15 and 16, will appear in Brampton Youth Court on March 17 to answer to charges of obstructing a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer and trespassing.
Paul Black, president of the Peel Regional Police Association said when he saw the video, it was a "surprise and shock" to see that someone would do that to one of their members.
Black said the video only captured a snapshot of the altercation, which began within the school.
"There was a very violent struggle that took this whole incident out to a snowbank. So our officer was very tired in the moment. She did what she had to do to bring these two parties into custody," he said.
The president of the police association said that officers are "routinely assaulted" during arrests but not many of the assaults are caught on tape.
"What is unsettling in this case is the person on the video found this incident humourous. We can see the filmer is laughing and found that that was his priority in this moment to capture an assault," he added.
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