A man who filmed a Toronto police officer arresting someone at a liquor store says the officer was racially profiling customers and was responsible for the tense standoff that resulted between police and angry onlookers.
According to Thala, "a young black guy walked into the liquor store and the officer grabbed him and took him outside the liquor store" and told him he wasn't allowed inside.
The Toronto Police, however, says the officer did nothing wrong.
According to spokesperson Mark Pugash, the officer was doing paid duty at the liquor store, meaning he had been hired by the LCBO to provide extra security and had "full authority to determine who gets in and who doesn't."
"The officer became concerned by this man's behaviour," Pugash told BuzzFeed Canada. "He was pacing back and forth, he was fidgety, kept moving his hands in and out of his jacket and pants pockets."
Pugash identified the man as 25-year-old Marquel Johnson. He said the officer asked for Johnson's ID with the intention of giving him a trespass notice, at which point Johnson "swung his arm, striking the officer."
Video of the encounter starts as the police officer had Johnson pinned on the ground, trying to arrest him for assaulting an officer.
What the 16-minute video shows is a chaotic scene that grows increasingly tense as onlookers start to jeer the police officer. Some are heard taunting him about his "partner" being in court, an apparent reference to James Forcillo, the Toronto police officer on trial for fatally shooting 18-year-old Sammy Yatim on a streetcar in 2013.
Another man wearing a Blue Jays jacket is seen on the video trying to intervene, demanding Johnson be placed in handcuffs or let go, and at points seemingly trying to free him from the officer's grasp.
Eventually back-up arrives and Johnson is taken away by several officers as people in the crowd demand his release and cite cases of police abuse in Canada and the United States.
Pugash dismissed the accusation that the officer was singling out black people, saying it was "depressingly easy" to make that charge. The real problem, he said, was the "menacing crowd" that gathered and the people who intervened in the arrest.
One other man has been arrested and may yet be charged for obstruction.
"Under extremely difficult and provocative circumstances, the police officer was restrained, professional, focused on his job," Pugash said.
He declined to name the officer in the video.