Const. Geoff Mantler was "all jacked up" when he approached Buddy Tavares in his truck, a witness testified Monday.
Grant Wereley was sitting with his wife in their car at Lakeview Market as the plain-clothes officer pulled up on KLO Road in an unmarked patrol car on Jan. 7, 2011. The officer had trouble shifting the vehicle into park and tried unsuccessfully to switch off the siren.
"He was quite jacked up - very excited, very excited," said Wereley, 64, at Mantler's trial for assault causing bodily harm. "He had difficulty putting the car in park. He couldn't turn off the siren. He was fumbling. That indicated to me right there he was jacked up."
The officer had his 9-millimetre pistol pointed at the driver of the Dodge pickup after it stopped in front of Wereley. The officer yelled at him several times to get out of the truck.
The officer (Mantler) walked to the rear of the truck. Wereley looked under the vehicle and watched for the driver's feet to appear on the pavement on the far side of the truck. Nothing happened. A female officer went to the passenger side of the truck and looked inside.
Mantler appeared to take several steps forward, Wereley said. The driver got out with this left foot first. Mantler told him at least twice to get on the ground. He got down on his knees with his torso bending down when Mantler's legs came toward him.
"(I) saw his right leg go up. The female member came around (the rear) of the truck and they all disappeared from view," Wereley said. "He (Tavares) was on the ground. That's all I knew."
The trial, now in its second week, is hearing for the first time from bystanders who had different vantage points than the Castanet video.
Patricia Richter testified she was gassing up her vehicle at the Shell Station across Lakeshore Road when the arrest happened.
She could see Tavares in the front seat of the truck as Mantler walked "briskly" toward him with his gun drawn. He tried to open the driver's door himself but it was locked, she said
She saw Tavares reach for the lock as if to open it until Mantler yelled, prompting him to raise his hands quickly. "He put his hands up quicker than when he unlocked the door," Richter said.
Tavares's hands were up at head level, she said. She never saw them on the steering wheel. He kept his hands up as he got out of the truck and kept there as he got down on his knees.
"His hands were up when he was kicked," Richter said. "When I saw him go down on his knees . . . he was moving cautiously."
Gary Dunn was driving a transit bus west on KLO Road when he saw at least two police cars pull up with sirens going. He steered the bus into the turn lane and looked back as he waited at a red light to enter Lakeshore.
An officer in plain-clothes had his gun pointed at the pickup truck that had just pulled over, said Dunn, 64. When he looked back seconds later, "the driver had just got out of his truck. He was standing there at the door with his hands up."
The driver was facing toward the back of the truck as he got down on his hands and knees. The officer, who was facing him at the truck's rear, then came toward him.
"The officer kicked the fellow in the head while he was on his hands and knees," Dunn said.
"Did you see any sudden movements from him?" asked Crown counsel Will Burrows.
"No."
The light turned green and Dunn turned onto Lakeshore to drop off passengers at a bus stop near the Shell station. He looked back to see two officers helping the man up and walking him to a police car.
Burrows will likely close his case Wednesday.