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No charges against B.C. officers who used force

No charges against two B.C. officers who used force during separate arrests

By The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER - British Columbia's criminal justice branch says no charges will be laid against two police officers involving separate allegations of use of force.

Spokesman Neil MacKenzie says the Crown probed one incident in Metro Vancouver and one in the Okanagan following investigations by B.C.'s police watchdog.

The Surrey incident in April 2013 involved a male suspect who was believed to have stolen a vehicle and was carrying a knife while high on drugs and possibly suffering from mental problems.

MacKenzie says an officer who found the man hiding in bushes released a police dog when the suspect refused to show his hands, and the dog bit the suspect again when its leash snapped.

MacKenzie says there's no evidence the officer's deployment of the dog involved inappropriate force, plus the suspect's recollection is unreliable because he admitted to investigators he was coming down from a drug-induced psychosis at the time.

The Penticton incident in April 2014 involved a woman who, after being arrested for public intoxication, was diagnosed with a broken wrist but the Crown says it's impossible to determine how and when she was injured.