Dollarama security guard charged after beating caught on camera

A security guard has been charged with assault, Toronto police say, after he was recorded on video beating a man in a downtown Dollarama store.

The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon at 149 Sherbourne St., near Queen Street E.

In a 17-second video, recorded by witness Ricky Gamez, a man wearing a security guard vest is seen yelling and repeatedly punching another man, who is on the floor of the store's entrance.

Gamez told CBC News he works at a nearby shelter. He entered the store around 3 p.m. with a coworker, he said, and heard a man telling the security guard he had spilled coffee in his bag, which was leaking. 

The man asked the guard if he could take the bag inside the store or leave it in the entrance, Gamez said, and the guard told him to leave it on the street.

After repeating his request and being given the same answer, the man decided to walk into the store anyway, Gamez said, and the security guard then grabbed him by the shirt and tried to drag him out, ripping the man's shirt.

As they got into a struggle, the man spit on the guard, Gamez said.

"Once he did that, the security guard started to become crazy," he said. "He started to punch his face and drag him out of the place."

When they reached the entrance — a small vestibule with two doors to enter and exit — Gamez said the guard grabbed the man by the neck, threw him against the wall and punched him six times.

The man fell to the floor, at which point the guard kicked his head six times, stepped on him and slapped him, Gamez said.

Gamez said he tried to open the door to the entrance closest to him to help the man, but it could only be opened from the inside. He started filming but soon stopped to access the vestibule through the other door.

"This guy is going to kill this poor guy," Gamez said he remembers thinking before he stopped recording. 

Once he got inside the vestibule, Gamez said the man started to "wake up" and ran out of the store, so Gamez chased him.

"I was like, 'no he's not okay, and after what had happened, he can't be okay,'" he said.