Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A Colorado police officer has been arrested on felony charges after a video showed him using his pistol to beat a man he was attempting to arrest, choking him and threatening to kill him, and a second officer was also arrested after authorities say she failed to stop her colleague as required by a new police accountability law.
Body camera footage was shown Tuesday at a news conference of the Friday incident that happened in the Denver suburb of Aurora, whose police department has been plagued by numerous police misconduct cases in recent years including the 2018 death of Elijah McClain.
The man repeatedly says "You're killing me, bro," as Aurora police Officer John Haubert holds him down and strikes him, the video shows.
"If you move, I will shoot you," Haubert says. The officer says repeatedly "Stop fighting," as the man cries and gasps for air.
Video shows Haubert yelling at the man to roll over on his stomach and show his hands to which the man complies.
"I need water," the man cries as the body camera footage comes to an end. The man was hospitalized after he was arrested on suspicion of trespassing.
Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson called the arrest a "very despicable act" at the press conference.
"This video will shock your conscience. It is very disturbing," said Wilson, who took over the department last year. "We're disgusted. We're angry. This is not police work. We don't train this."
Haubert is under investigation over possible attempted first-degree assault, second-degree assault and felony menacing in connection with the Friday incident, according to arrest warrant affidavits written by an Aurora police detective and obtained by The Denver Post.
Officer Francine Martinez faces charges over allegedly not intervening to try to stop Haubert's purported use of force, the documents say. A new Colorado police accountability law requires law enforcement to intervene when they witness abuses of force.
Both officers have turned themselves in. It wasn't immediately known if they had attorneys.
Haubert and Martinez were dispatched Friday afternoon to investigate a trespassing report. The officers encountered three people who had outstanding felony warrants and tried to arrest them. Two ran way, the documents say.
Haubert drew his pistol and pointed it at the third suspect, who did not resist. Haubert allegedly grabbed the back of the man's neck, pressed his gun against the man's head, then struck the man's head with his pistol at least seven times while ordering him to lie on his stomach, the documents say.
A still image taken from an officer's body camera footage and included in the affidavit allegedly shows Haubert choking the man. On the footage, Haubert told a sergeant after the arrest, "I was going to shoot him but I didn't know if I had a round in it or not," the documents state. Haubert also said blood on the man was from "pistol-whipping him."
Aurora's troubled police department has been involved in several abuse-of-force incidents in recent years. The most egregious was the 2018 death of McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after being confronted by police responding to a citizen's call about a "suspicious" person in their neighborhood.
Wilson became the first female to permanently lead the Aurora Police Department when she got the job in August 2020. At the time, the department was looking to regain public trust following a tumultuous year since the death of McClain, whom officers stopped on the street and put into a chokehold.
Wilson, who is white, has 23 years of experience with the Police Department in Colorado's third-largest city, a diverse community east of Denver. She got the job over three other nationwide finalists -- all Black men.
Colorado's Legislature passed a bill last year that, among other things, requires all officers to use body cameras by July 2023, bans chokeholds, limits potentially lethal uses of force and removes qualified immunity from police, potentially exposing officers to lawsuits for their actions in use of force cases.
The 2020 law also bars police from using deadly force against suspects they believe are armed unless there is an imminent threat of a weapon being used. It requires officers to intervene when seeing use of excessive force by colleagues and to report such cases to superiors.
Lawmakers strengthened that law this year to, in part, encourage more officers to use their body cameras and promote "de-escalation techniques" in police encounters.
Wilson said she moved quickly to put the officers on leave and release the body camera footage to shed light on an incident she said is "anomaly" in a department trying to do better. She apologized to the man who was beaten up.
"This is not the Aurora police department," Wilson said. "This was criminal."
--------
Associated Press writer Thomas Peipert contributed to this report.
Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.