One of two Toronto police officers accused of unlawfully arresting four teens for assaulting a police officer at a public housing complex took to the stand to defend himself at a police disciplinary tribunal Tuesday, saying he was “scared” and had never before seen anyone go after police like that.Const. Scharnil Pais testified that he had only been with the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit a little more than a month when he and partner Const. Adam Lourenco pulled into the parking lot of the Neptune Dr. complex in an unmarked van on a November evening in 2011.Lourenco, who elected not to testify or present further evidence in the hearing, knew the area better than Pais, who had been with the police for four years at that point, Pais told the hearing. On the ride over, Lourenco spoke of a history of firearms and drugs in the area, said Pais, and there had been an earlier briefing about two recent robberies in the police division that included the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood.None of the four Black teenage boys — aged 15 and 16, two of them twin brothers — the officers spotted outside the Neptune Dr. complex matched descriptions of those wanted in the robberies, said Pais, Part of the drill that night was to enforce the Trespass to Property Act on Toronto Community Housing Corporation property.The officers, both in uniform, got out of the van to do just that, said Pais, and things quickly escalated into a dangerous arrest involving Lourenco pulling out his firearm and a call for backup, most of which was captured on a soundless security cameras, and became known as the case of the Neptune Four.Pais described his version of events for his lawyer, Joanne Mulcahy, and broke down images from the video, including the point where Lourenco tries to arrest one of the teens after he refused to identify himself and allegedly swore and spat at Lourenco, which the teen denied earlier in the hearing.“I hear someone yellin ...
|
