ABC News has uncovered CCTV footage of six Victorian police officers entering pensioner’s home, dragging him into the front yard, proceeding to pin him to the ground and douse in pepper spray.
The victim, named John, a disability pensioner that he “thought he was going to die”, detailing that he was ill and distressed, having withdrawn from the back medication he had been on since his surgery.
The video, posted to 7.30’s Facebook page shows John pleading with police to leave him alone after threatening to break down the door. An officer approaches John with pepper spray and is immediately pinned down by the group.
Emergency services were called to his home by his health carers, who were concerned at his deteriorating mental state, with his anxiety and depression worsening.
John is said to have a minor assault on his police record from 10 years ago, with Police dispatch notes warning that John may have provoked the police into shooting him.
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The video also shows the police aiming a high-pressure hose at John’s head to wash off the capsicum spray.
“He’s aiming for my nostrils and it’s going into my lungs — and that’s when I started choking from the water and from the hot mace going into my respiratory [system],” he said. “I couldn’t breathe.”
John has refused to take this case to the police as they “won’t investigate it”, but has raised it with the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC), and is also launching a civil case.
