Man arrested by Regina police wants officer ‘off the streets’

A man who says he was injured during an arrest by Regina police members in December is calling for what he claims would be justice: Removing the police officer who allegedly injured him from service.

“Get this cop off the streets that felt the need to hurt me, because you never know who else this cop did this to,” Rocky Lonechild said in a statement.

Lonechild’s cousin, Terrance Lonechild, read the statement on his cousin’s behalf. Rocky Lonechild is remanded in custody at the Regina correctional centre on charges of meth possession and resisting arrest.

His arrest was captured on a home security video on Dec. 13. Originally posted to Facebook, the video shows three officers chasing down Lonechild and taking him to the ground on a sidewalk in an area with houses, a park and a playground on one side of the street.

A fourth officer then approaches to join the melee, and appears to inflict knee-strikes on the man.

Lonechild said in his statement that the fourth officer’s actions broke three of Lonechild’s ribs and punctured one of his lungs.

Lawrence Bigeagle takes a moment to pause before reading his statement to the media about the arrest of his son, Rocky Lonechild on Jan. 13, 2020. (Jessie Anton/980 CJME)

“I would like to know why the cop felt the need to drop his or her full body weight on my ribs when the two cops already had both my arms and I was not fighting back at all,” he said.

He said that when he crumpled over in pain beside a police cruiser, an officer said aloud that he was faking.

Lonechild also expressed concern over how paramedics treated him when they transported him to a hospital in an ambulance. “I wasn’t even checked to see where I was hurting.”

In December, Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said at the time of Lonechild’s arrest, members received tips that he was part of a home invasion, that he was high on crystal meth and that he may have been carrying a gun.

Lonechild refuted all of those claims in his statement Monday.

“I am scarred for life from this,” he said, “and I wish for no one to go through this uncalled-for cop’s actions.”

He’s worried that he will “never breathe the same, and also have three fragile ribs that I can never take back.”

Lonechild said he ran away from police on Dec. 13 because “I was waiting until after Christmas to turn myself in. All I wanted to do is have Christmas with my boys before I went to jail.”

That’s related to a charge of failing to appear in court from April 29.

The arrest is now being investigated by the provincial Public Complaints Commission.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Jessie Anton and Evan Radford