Toronto Police are conducting an internal investigation after a video of an arrest on Monday captured officers intimidating the man filming the scene and making a troubling comment about AIDS.
In the video, obtained by CityNews, several officers are seen gathered around a man lying facedown on the ground. An officer then fires a Taser device at the man.
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Police arrest and Taser suspect after female cop allegedly assaulted
"He’s down and they Tase him?" says the man recording, whom CityNews has identified as Waseem Khan.
A few moments later, one of the male officers yells "stop resisting" as a Taser is fired again. The officer can also be seen kicking the man's upper leg.
The same officer then looks up and says, "Get that guy out of my face please," referring to Khan.
That's when a female officer approaches Khan and says, "If you’re a witness then we’re going to be seizing your cellphone."
Another male cop then tells Khan, "He’s going to spit in your face, you’re going to get AIDS," adding "Stop recording or I'm going to seize your phone as evidence, and you’re going to lose your phone."
Police spokesperson Mark Pugash would not comment on any aspect of the arrest or video because "there is now an ongoing investigation." He instead referred BuzzFeed Canada to previous comments made to the media.
UPDATE: Toronto Police issued an apology on Twitter late Wednesday for the "AIDS" comment.
1st step in righting a wrong: @TPS51Div officer's comment simply wrong. You cannot get HIV/AIDS from spit. We're #sorry. ^vk
The tweets said an expert will be brought in to educate officers about HIV/AIDS.
2nd step in righting a wrong: @TPS51Div will bring in outside HIV/AIDS expert to educate their officers. ^vk
And they reiterated that an investigation is underway.
3rd step in righting a wrong: A Professional Standards/Internal Affairs investigation into @TPS51Div incident is underway. ^vk