The Saskatoon police sergeant who handcuffed Jordan Lafond said he did stomp on his hand but did not kick him in the face.
Sgt. Kelly Olafson, who testified during the third day of the inquest into Lafond’s death, said he believes he was the first officer to find Lafond underneath a truck after it crashed.
“I can tell you it would be physically impossible for me to kick the individual,” Olafson said, adding he stomped on Lafond’s hand because it was the only part of Lafond’s body he could access when trying to arrest him.
The lead investigator in the case testified Monday and said it appears in police dash cam video that Olafson may have kicked Lafond in the head, but it’s too unclear to tell in the video.
Lafond was the passenger in a stolen truck that crashed into a fence on Oct. 23, 2016, after a police pursuit. The inquest heard after Lafond’s arrest officers realized he was unconscious, his face was bloody and he had significant damage to one eye.
“He wasn’t breathing very heavily and he was bleeding quite heavily,” Olafson said.
An officer took off Lafond’s handcuffs, rolled him into the recovery position and paramedics were called to the scene.
Olafson also testified he didn’t see Lafond move at all during the arrest and thought he may have a weapon because there was a report there was at least one gun in the truck. Police recovered three guns from the truck.
Olafson was grilled by Chris Murphy, the lawyer representing the Lafond family, for watching three dash cam videos before making his notes the night of the incident.
Murphy pointed out it’s against policy for officers to watch videos before they are interviewed by investigators in an internal investigation. In this case, there was an investigation because the incident involved serious injury or death. Olafsan said he didn’t consider it a serious injury case at the time so he didn’t think those rules applied. He also said he watched the videos — and rewound them — to see how Lafond got underneath the truck and not to watch his own conduct.
Another Saskatoon police sergeant testified Tuesday to kneeing Lafond three to four times because he thought he was resisting arrest. Sgt. Thomas Gresty said he realized soon after that Lafond wasn’t trying to get away and that he regrets what happened.
A doctor who examined Lafond’s brain said Wednesday he can’t determine if it was the car crash or police force that led to the brain trauma that ultimately killed Lafond.
The inquest continues Thursday with more witness testimony, including from forensic pathologist Dr. Shaun Ladham.
