A day after a 23-year-old woman was arrested by security guards at City Centre Mall, her blood smeared on the hard tile floor, the local Bear Clan held a protest at the scene.
There, organizer Judith Gale alleged an "assault" was committed by mall security against a person with "mental health and addictions" challenges.
"There was so much blood," Gale said on Tuesday. "She was just trying to get out of the cold."
Gale said she was called to the mall by people who were there. She posted videos to Facebook where she is heard screaming and swearing.
The woman who was arrested had a "trespassing ban" and was escorted out of the mall twice, but kept coming back inside, an Edmonton Police Service spokesperson said.
After she was taken to a holding cell in the mall, police responded to a "trouble with person" call, Scott Pattison said, adding officers will investigate.
'PEOPLE NEED A PLACE TO GO'
But the issue is bigger than one woman and one mall, said the director of programs at Boyle Street Community Services, a charity with a shelter a few blocks from the shopping centre.
Despite recent investments from governments, there's still not enough space to get everyone off of the streets, Aidan Inglis said.
"Whether it be at a mall, or at drop-ins like ours or others around the city, capacity always becomes an issue," he told CTV News Edmonton Wednesday.
"People need a place to go during the day that’s more than just a bed."
Boyle Street has a relationship with the mall, in part to prevent what happened on Monday.
"We work, again, in a proactive way with security so that they know that’s a resource that can be available so that everything doesn’t have to be done through an enforcement lens," Inglis said.
'ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY'
City Centre Mall initially ignored requests for comment, but a spokesperson provided a statement Tuesday.
In it, the partnership with Boyle Street and other agencies is noted, but it was not clear if staff made a call to one before or during Monday's incident.
The woman arrested "is very familiar to both our security team and the police," marketing manager Zaina Yusuf said.
"As is standard policy, management is currently investigating the incident to ensure policies and procedures were followed," Yusuf told CTV News Edmonton.
She also referenced a "zero tolerance policy towards any aggressive or threatening behaviour," but didn't say exactly what the woman did to warrant arrest.
She was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, EPS said.
Videos of the altercation were posted online, with witness Yasin Cetin saying, "Although she was resisting, the force used to ‘contain’ her was excessive."
'REALLY UNACCEPTABLE'
The city councillor for the area has some sympathy for the mall, and other businesses downtown, who are struggling with "social disorder" in the city's core.
One recent count of unhoused people in Edmonton pegged that number at roughly 3,000.
"I think what City Centre Mall is experiencing is really unacceptable. They are spending millions of dollars a year on security, which is something they shouldn’t have to do as a business," Ward O-day’min Coun. Anne Stevenson said.
As for Gale, she was asked whether a private business like a mall is an appropriate place for people who don't have a home to regularly seek warmth.
"Absolutely, the mall is a refuge for everybody that’s in the inner city," she replied.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson
