For 12 minutes in the back of a police car, Tyrone Hines cries out in pain, pleads for help, says he can’t breathe and asks if he’s going to die.
“Please, please, I’m begging you guys,” Hines can be heard saying in an in-car camera video, moments after he was pepper-sprayed while handcuffed. “This hurts, this hurts, this hurts really bad.”
The 15-minute video, called “disturbing” by Ontario Court judge Richard Blouin and obtained by the Star this week, was the basis for Blouin’s conclusion that Toronto police Const. Matthew Brewer used “excessive” force against Hines when he pepper-sprayed the man already apprehended and in a cruiser. It was a case of “obvious police brutality,” Blouin said.
In a sternly worded decision last week, the judge opted to drop four charges, including drug and weapon possession, against Hines to condemn Brewer’s behaviour, which came in the wake of a late-night fight between Hines and another man inside a Yonge St. Popeyes restaurant in September 2016. Blouin nonetheless found Hines guilty of assault with a weapon for punching another man while holding a knife between his fingers.
Toronto police internal investigators are now reviewing the decision blasting Brewer — a move that could land him back before a police disciplinary tribunal.
In the video, Hines can be seen being placed in the back of a police car as Brewer swears while he instructs him to get in the car and warns Hines there is a camera recording “what you do and say.” Hines gets in the back, the police car begins rolling, then suddenly stops.
Brewer opens the door, and tells Hines to stop “kicking the f—— door.”
“I was not kicking no door, sir,” Hines says.
Brewer tells Hines to “get his f—— feet” in the car, as Hines says: “You’re trying to kill me.” Brewer later says “get your pepper-spray, guys,” and then sprays Hines, who cries out in pain.
Hines then yells and complains about the burning pain in his eyes until the car arrives at the police station. Throughout, a female officer attempts to reassure Hines, telling him to breathe deeply and assuring him he will be treated as soon as possible.
“Ma’am, please, I’m begging you,” he says, asking to be let out or to have the window rolled down. “It burns. It burns!”
Brewer has previously been disciplined for drinking while on duty and is currently facing one count of discreditable conduct before the Toronto police disciplinary tribunal in connection to a December 2016 off-duty incident at the officer’s home in Durham region.
According to Blouin’s ruling, Brewer brought a handgun into the bedroom where his spouse was sleeping, followed her through the home holding the gun, then went outside and fired the gun eight times into the air.
Durham police were called to investigate an “alleged domestic incident” and received calls from neighbours reporting the sound of gunshots, according to a Toronto police tribunal document outlining the allegations against Brewer.
“Durham Regional Police officers found you in front of your home in possession of a loaded handgun,” according to the tribunal document.
Blouin’s decision states that Brewer said he was suffering from depression, alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the December 2016 incident. His charge before the tribunal has not been proven.
Brewer was given a suspended sentence and two years probation after pleading guilty to unauthorized possession of a firearm and common nuisance. Initially after his arrest, Brewer faced potential jail time stemming from eight charges, including possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose and possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition.
However, according to a police source with knowledge of the case who was not authorized to speak on the record, the bulk of the charges against Brewer were dropped after it was discovered that Durham police investigators mishandled the probe. According to the police source, Durham failed to properly document the scene, and laid a number of charges without sufficient evidence.
Durham police did not respond by press time when asked about the allegations, including whether any officers faced misconduct charges under the Police Act in connection to the investigation.
David Butt, Brewer’s lawyer, said he could not provide a comment about Blouin’s decision while it was being reviewed by the Toronto police professional standards unit.