A female employee of a sci-fi bar who was dressed in a Star Wars costume was held at gunpoint by gun-wielding police officers.
The incident occurred at Coco Vanilla Galatic Cantina in Canada where a 19-year-old woman, who was employed by the restaurant, donned a stormtrooper outfit and a plastic blaster to celebrate Star Wars Day on May 4.
While some people stopped to take a picture with the worker who was roaming around the front of the restaurant, the police failed to realize she was of no danger to anyone when they arrived at the scene.
According to the reports, officers were responding to a report suggesting that an armed person was walking around the area.
After arriving at the scene, three police officers aimed their guns at the woman before yelling at her to “get down on the ground.”
The officers moved in and tackled the woman to the ground after she allegedly refused to comply.
In a video taken by a witness, the 19-year-old was heard sobbing as she was pushed against the ground and handcuffed.
While the woman hasn’t been charged by the police, she suffered a nosebleed during the arrest.
Outraged by the actions of the police was the owner of the restaurant, Bradley Whalen, who explained the employee was put in a costume to promote their sci-fi themed business.
“She was kind of walking out back-and-forth in front of the property by the sidewalk, just waving at people, and a couple people stopped by and got a picture with her,” Mr. Whalen told Global News.
Speaking of the way the police handled the report, the business owner added:
“She had, at that point, been down on her knees, her blaster — the plastic blaster she was using — had been over by the corner of the parking lot, the police had already looked at it. They picked it up and had seen that it was just a plastic prop.
“My concern isn’t that police responded to someone who called and reported.point 243 |
My problem is that after they determined that it was a fake prop, police still continued to yell at her with the guns pointed, telling her to, ‘get down on her face, get down on her face’ and then proceeded to handcuff her after they knew that it was a plastic prop toy.point 222 |
”point 3 | 1
After the incident went viral and people suggested the police overstepped the boundaries, LPS Chief Scott Woods started an investigation in an attempt to find out whether the involved police officers handled the issue correctly.
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Replaced!