Two VPD officers charged with assault of former UBC football player

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Nearly three years later, two officers with the Vancouver Police Department have been charged with assault following the arrest of a Black former UBC football player.

Const. Jarrod Sidhu is charged with one count of assault with a weapon and Const. Jagpreet Ghuman is charged with one count of assault, according to the BC Prosecution Service.

Cell phone video showed Jamiel Moore-Williams being forced to the ground in February 2018, where he was kicked and tasered for allegedly jaywalking on Granville Street.

The VPD confirmed the officers are still on active duty while the matter is before the court. Both of them are expected to be in court next month.

A GoFundMe page set up for Moore-Williams’ legal costs details the incident further, saying that night he had stepped onto the street to avoid being hit by rocks thrown by a person in mental distress.

“The VPD, who decided that a jaywalking charge against Jamiel was in the public’s interest, tackled, kneed and kicked him and then tasered him 14 times,” the page reads.

The organizer explains he was later handcuffed to his hospital bed, which caused permanent damage to his hand.

“Jamiel is a 6’4″ Black man, who has had to deal with harmful threat stereotypes about the ‘big Black man’ all of his life,” the page reads. “He does not have a criminal record and Jamiel is not the only Black football player in recent years who has made claims against the VPD for acting with excessive force towards them due to their size and skin colour but he would like to be the last.”

-with files from Tarnjit Parmar and Marcella Bernardo

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