“I was suffocating. I told them I couldn’t breath again and again,” Blanchard told CTV News. “The officer said, ‘If you’re speaking, you’re breathing.’”
Video from her home security system shows officers carrying her out of her home to a police car, and pictures show her face bloody and bruised as five Nanaimo RCMP officers detained her — something that Shanna Blanchard says never should have happened.
Her case is being investigated by B.C.’s Independent Investigation Office, which handles cases of death or serious harm at the hands of the police. Nanaimo RCMP said it would not speak to the incident while the investigation is ongoing. Blanchard said she was struggling with depression and was having a discussion with her son that was difficult for her. She said she locked herself in the bathroom, crying. One of her family members called 911 in the hopes they could get medical assistance.
“I eventually realized I was at a standoff and they wouldn’t leave unless I came out…one officer said I was being apprehended under the Mental Health Act. I stood up quickly and said, ‘No, you can’t.’ He punched me so hard my entire head spun 360 degrees,” she said. “I was assessed by the psych nurse in hospital and released. I was home by 5:15 p.m. There was no need for this,” she said.
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