Hamilton man feared for his life when police tasered him after seizure

One minute he was having a seizure.

The next he was on the concrete, tasered and pinned down by Hamilton police officers, his face bloodied and body swollen.

Marcus Charles says he feared for his life last Sunday when a routine medical episode quickly turned into a violent interaction with police that left him in hospital with several injuries.

The incident - captured on video and shared over social media - happened just outside the Canadian Tire at Main and Victoria streets, where the 27-year-old has worked for about a year. An epileptic, coworkers called paramedics after he began experiencing a brain seizure.

Next thing I know I wake up and I'm on the ground with police all over me, and I start freaking out. It felt like I was drowning," Charles told The Spectator in an interview Wednesday.

It was an unbelievably scary feeling. I've never felt so scared before in my life."

The Hamilton Paramedic Service said in a statement that police were called to the Canadian Tire after its members were involved in a dangerous, violent and volatile situation" with a combative patient.

Upon officers' arrival, the patient's behaviour escalated, said police spokesperson Jackie Penman. Two officers were physically assaulted, she alleged, and one suffered a concussion.

For the safety of the individual, officers and paramedics, officers deployed a (Taser) in order to gain control of the situation," Penman said, noting video footage independently obtained by police shows the entire incident and the officers' actions were appropriate to the situation they faced."

We appreciate that the individual's medical condition may have affected the events as they unfolded," she added in an emailed statement.

Penman didn't elaborate on the contents of the video that police obtained.

Other clips from the incident, shot by a Canadian Tire employee and posted to social media, show Charles screaming in distress and pinned on the pavement with a half-dozen officers surrounding him.

And that's important context, Charles argued.

He said his state in the video shows what it's like to come off a seizure in a highly stressful, unfamiliar environment.

You're confused and frantic, and when you have police surrounding you but you don't know why, you're scared for your life," said Charles.

Charles - who's since been charged with two counts of assaulting a peace officer and one count of assaulting a paramedic - takes pointed issue with how police and paramedics handled the incident, and how they've responded to it.

I'm being painted as this bad person and violent person, and I'm not. That wasn't me in that moment; it was me in my seizure stage," he said. You call these people think they'd understand, think they'd know what to do."

The last thing you do to someone having a seizure is restrain them, and for the police to say they were acting in accordance to protocol is absolutely inexcusable," said Cynthia Milburn, CEO of Epilepsy South-Central Ontario, an advocacy group for those with seizure disorders

Milburn said the behaviour Charles displayed in the video - frantic, confused, distressed - is normal for someone who is unexpectedly provoked during a medical emergency.

The Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI) also blasted police's response, saying in a statement the force used against Charles underscores the dire need" for investment in community-based supports for mental health.

Medical distress should never be met with force, and we condemn these blatant acts of violence against a member of our community who required urgent medical attention."

Among other questions, the organization asks why Charles was criminally charged considering he was in medical distress.

Beyond the charges he now faces and the injuries he sustained - deep scrapes to his face and body, swelling in his wrists and forearms, a sore neck and back - Charles said the incident has left him emotionally traumatized and worried.

And not just for himself, but for others who could find themselves in a similar situations in the future.

If it happened to me, it can happen to someone else - and people need to know that so it doesn't," he said. We can't let it."

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com