RCMP dashcam footage of the March arrest of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam shows an arriving officer jump-tackling the chief to the ground without warning, punching him in the head and putting him in a chokehold.
RCMP dashcam footage shows the arrest of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam in March. The video shows an arriving officer jump-tackling the chief to the ground without warning, punching him in the head and putting him in a chokehold. 5:27
RCMP dashcam footage of the March arrest of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam shows an arriving officer jump-tackling the chief to the ground without warning, punching him in the head and putting him in a chokehold.
In the nearly 12-minute video obtained by CBC News, an agitated Adam swears repeatedly at the police officers, accuses the RCMP of harassing him and removes his jacket while appearing ready to fight one of the officers after RCMP pulled behind his idling truck outside a Fort McMurray, Alta., casino early in the morning of March 10.
RCMP had noticed Adam’s licence plate had expired.
“F–king leave us alone!” Adam shouts at an RCMP officer, moments after he pulled up behind his idling truck in the parking lot with the cruiser’s lights flashing.
“Don’t f–king stop behind us like you’re f–king watching us.”
At one point, Adam tells an officer to tell his sergeant that “Chief Adam f–king tells you, ‘I’m tired of being harassed by the RCMP.'”
The officer, who is still in his vehicle at that point, repeatedly tells Adam to return to his vehicle and that he will talk to him in a minute.
“You and I are going to have a f–king problem, right here, right f–king now,” Adam tells the officer.
Adam appears to become increasingly agitated and at one point storms past the rear of his truck while removing his jacket. A few moments later, he assumed a fighting stance while his wife appeared to try to calm him.
The video shows the officer briefly grabbing Adam’s wife as she stands at the rear passenger side door of the truck. Adam yells at the officer to not touch his wife.
About seven minutes into the incident, behind Adam’s truck, the officer tries to grab Adam’s left arm in what appears to be an attempt to arrest him.
At that moment, another officer runs up and jump-tackles Adam to the ground. The second officer punches Adam in the head as he continues to struggle and a few seconds later places him in a chokehold.
“F–k you, don’t resist arrest!” the officer yells, along with, “Don’t resist! Don’t resist!”
Adam’s face is bloody as officers lead him to their vehicle.
‘I struck the male’
An affidavit filed in court along with the video quotes the notes of Const. Simon Seguin.
“I charged at the male [Adam] with the intention of bringing him to the ground,” Seguin wrote in his notes.
“I struck the male as he tried to come up,” Seguin later wrote. “He turned on his right side. I struck him using my right hand on his right side of the face.
“I wrapped my hand [left arm] around his jaw and started squeezing.”
WATCH | Nearly 12-minute dashcam video of Chief Allan Adam’s arrest:
This RCMP dashcam shows the whole