Tale of the tape: Truro police officer under scrutiny after altercation ends with student unconscious

The actions of a police officer in Truro, N.S., are being questioned after a video emerged online that ends with a young man unconscious after an interaction with the officer, but police say there's much more to the story.

Widely shared on social media, the 40-second video appears to show an interaction between a student at the Cobequid Education Centre.

"Calm down!" a female voice is heard yelling in the recording as the officer grapples with the teen.

"You're making it worse!"

After throwing the student to the ground, the officer appears to hold him there as the female urges the officer to let go.

"You can get off him," she says.

When the officer does, the student appears to be unconscious.

There's more yelling and the video ends three seconds later.

The incident was still the talk at CEC Tuesday, with a number of students telling CTV News police were heavy-handed in dealing with the situation, which began as a school yard fight.

The student involved, they say, has a medical condition that makes him prone to seizures.

There was mixed reaction on the streets of Truro Tuesday.

"Well, I thought it was the policeman's fault because he shouldn't have attacked that little fellow," one woman said.

"Thoughts on the video at first were very upsetting. I don't really know all the circumstances concerning it, but I'm sure the Truro Police were doing their job to the best of their ability," said Peggy Hazlehurst.

"I think it's sad, really, that the police have to interact with kids in the run of a day, that should be acting sensibly in school, whether they're uptown here or not," said Bruce Vacheresse.

But Truro Police say there's much more to the story.

In an emailed statement to CTV News Tuesday, Chief Dave McNeil called the incident "unfortunate", and insisted other videos would reveal the whole story.

"The Truro Police Service were called to Cobequid Education Centre at 10:30 am on October 23, 2023, due to an incident at the school," the statement reads.

"When a police officer arrived at the school, he was met at the front of the school by school administrators and a number of students. The officer engaged in dialogue with school administration and a student was asked to leave the premises of the school. When the student refused to leave the school premises, the officer attempted to arrest the student. When the arrest was attempted, a second student interfered and assaulted the police officer. At this time, the altercation heightened. In the end, two students were arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and trespass," said the statement.

"Truro Police later became aware of a video showing a portion of the altercation. This video does not capture the entire interaction. Video footage was captured by the police officer's body camera and by the school security system. Both of these videos will be used as part of the investigation and show footage throughout the entire incident," said McNeil, who was unavailable for an interview Tuesday.

"This is a very unfortunate event. Our preference is always to resolve incidents without force, especially when dealing with youth," it said.

"We are not taking this incident lightly."

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