Transit police officer injured, taser used on fare evader during scuffle

January 17, 2009
CBC News

A fare evader was stunned with a Taser on Friday afternoon and a transit police officer suffered a head wound during a confrontation at a SkyTrain station in New Westminster, B.C.

Two transit police were checking passengers for fares on a train arriving at Braid Station, said Const. Tom Seaman of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service.

When the train stopped at the station, the man, in his mid-30s, fled.

"He ignored the officers and kept walking; he was asked several times, but kept walking," Seaman said in a news release issued Friday.

One of the two officers tried physically to stop the man, who then became "confrontational" and went down an escalator that was going up.

"The physical altercation quickly escalated. During the altercation one of the officers fell down the escalator with the suspect falling on top of him. A Taser had been deployed without affect," Seaman said.

The officer who fell down the escalator suffered a head wound and was bleeding badly, but the man continued to resist.

"A second Taser was deployed, which helped bring the male under control," Seaman said.

The man was carrying a steak knife in his clothing, which fell out after he was jolted by the Taser, Seaman said.

Transit police said they had dealt with the same man two weeks earlier for not paying a fare, and he had to be physically restrained in that incident.

The injured officer was recovering in hospital Friday evening.

Transit police will recommend charges of obstruction, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest against the man.