Security videos that show RCMP punching Indigenous men in Thompson point to tense relationship

WARNING: This story includes graphic images and details of violent encounters with police.

It's just after 6 p.m. on a June 2019 evening in the northern Manitoba city of Thompson.

The sun is still up, and RCMP officers have been called to a disturbance at the bar inside the Thompson Inn.

Surveillance video shows a calm conversation between an officer and a 50-year-old man wearing a baseball cap. The two exit the bar, with another officer following.

Here, the outdoor security video shows a sudden change in the situation. 

The man, Brian Halcrow, throws his hat. It is seen flying through the air. 

The officer turns around, hits the man twice in the head and arrests him. 

This video is one of two obtained by CBC News that show cases of an RCMP officer in Thompson punching an Indigenous man while responding to a call.

WATCH | Security camera shows interaction outside the Thompson Inn (WARNING: graphic and disturbing images):

"I've heard a lot of stories," Patsy Halcrow, Brian's sister, told CBC News when asked about people in Thompson having negative interactions with police.

"It does happen to them, but they don't say anything," she said. "There's a lot of people in the north where it happens.… Brian's probably not the first one."

Const. Jeremiah Dumont-Fontaine was charged with assaulting Brian Halcrow following a six-month investigation by Manitoba's Independent Investigation Unit, the province's police watchdog, in early 2020. 

The charge came the same week that Halcrow died by suicide.

The other video, taken in September 2018, shows an RCMP officer punching a man three times outside Thompson's homeless shelter after the man spit in the direction of officers.