VICTORIA -- Two Mounties in Langford have been cleared of any wrongdoing after a December arrest left a woman with a broken arm.
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO) was called to investigate the Dec. 11 arrest of a woman accused of fraudulently failing to pay a taxi fare.
At approximately 8:30 p.m. that evening, a taxi driver took the woman to the West Shore RCMP detachment because she was unable to pay her cab fare from downtown to the West Shore, according to the IIO findings released Wednesday.
Two officers met the woman and the driver and handcuffed the woman, at which point she started yelling and tried to get away, according to the driver.
Video recordings from the police detachment show the woman struggling and "twisting in the officers' grip," according to the findings.
At some point during the struggle, officers reported hearing a popping sound after the woman "dropped her weight very suddenly."
Two paramedics attended the detachment and took the woman to hospital where she was diagnosed with a spiral fracture in her left arm.
Chief civilian IIO director Ronald MacDonald found the officers acted lawfully in the arrest, and the woman's injury was not the result of excessive force, but her own actions, according to his report.
