KELOWNA – The independent group charged with the responsibility of investigating police-related incidents in B.C. says it probably won’t be looking into the Kelowna Mountie who may have assaulted a suspect during an arrest last year.

Cpl. Chris Williams is charged with common assault and will appear in court March 22. Supt. Nick Romanchuk says in a media release the charge comes after an investigation into Williams’ handling of a man he arrested May 29, 2015.

Independent Investigations Office of B.C. spokesperson Marten Youssef says although they have a mandate to investigate instances where someone is injured by police, they need one of two things to happen first.

“It’s probably not serious enough that they felt the need to notify the (office),” Youssef says. “And we weren’t notified by any members of the public.”

Romanchuk says in the release Williams is on administrative leave and "the matter is also being dealt with through a code of conduct process.”

The RCMP have not released the name of the alleged victim or the nature of injuries sustained.

From the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. website:

“The Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) is mandated to conduct investigations into police-related incidents of death or serious harm in order to determine whether or not an officer may have committed an offence.

“Incidents of serious harm include injury that may result in death, may cause serious disfigurement or may cause substantial loss or impairment of mobility of the body as a whole or of the function of any limb or organ.”

Calls to Kelowna RCMP were not returned.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2016

• More News ...