Man kicked in Winnipeg arrest video gets 30-day sentence By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2020 Last Modified: 9:35 PM CDT Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2020 Updates

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A man whose arrest was the subject of a cellphone video that brought renewed attention to Winnipeg Police Service use of force has been given what a judge called “a huge break” and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Flinn Dorian, 33, was arrested June 11, after witnesses reported seeing a man in the area of the Manitoba Museum and Centennial Concert Hall brandishing what they believed to be a firearm.

At a sentencing hearing June 30, court heard Dorian was high on methamphetamine when he damaged a granite slab affixed to the museum and threw a brick through a window at the concert hall, causing an estimated $17,000 in damages.

When police caught up to Dorian walking along James Street, he discarded an airsoft replica handgun, but failed to comply with demands to drop to the ground, according to Crown attorney Omar Siddiqui.

“In his state of mind… I don’t know what’s going on in his head or if he’s even conscious of what police are telling him,” Siddiqui told provincial court Judge Dale Harvey.

After “some grappling,” police took Dorian to the ground and he was shocked with a Taser, Siddiqui said. During the course of an ensuing struggle, a knife and metal bar fell out of Dorian’s pants.

One day after a witness cellphone video showing an officer kicking Dorian as he lay face-down on the ground was made public, the WPS was forced into damage control, defending the arresting officers’ actions as consistent with their training.

At a news conference, police provided security video they said supported their use of what critics called excessive force.

“Admittedly, it’s a tough video to watch,” Const. Jay Murray told reporters. “But I’m going to answer bluntly: that kick likely saved his life. If that individual gets a hold of that knife that’s in his waistband and officers see that, and he has that knife in his hand, you’re potentially in a lethal-force encounter.”

Dorian pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, causing a disturbance and mischief over $5,000 in connection to the incident. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting his longtime partner in a separate incident two weeks earlier, and was sentenced to the equivalent of 28 days time served.

Siddiqui said he and defence lawyer James Wood jointly agreed to recommend a sentence that would otherwise be considered “on the lower end of the spectrum,” in exchange for probation conditions geared to addressing Dorian’s addiction issues.

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Siddiqui said Dorian’s partner, who he had been twice previously convicted of assaulting, remains “genuinely concerned” about him and wants to see him beat his drug problem.

“Mr. Dorian needs to hopefully put himself in a position where he comes to terms with his underlying addictions,” Siddiqui said.

Court heard Dorian grew up in foster care and, with his partner, has spent several years living on the streets. The death of his sister this spring sent him into his most recent drug spiral.

Harvey told Dorian he has reached “a tipping point,” and has to make a better effort to get off drugs.

“The Crown didn’t want to say they are giving you a break, but I’ll say it: with this recommendation you are getting a huge break,” he said.

Harvey sentenced Dorian to an additional one year supervised probation for the assault on his partner, with conditions he undergo counselling as ordered and to only have contact with his partner with her consent and when not intoxicated.

In a second concurrent probation order, Harvey ordered Dorian not attend within 200 feet of the Manitoba Museum and Centennial Concert Hall, and not possess weapons.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.

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