Beaten UWO student can't remember what happened: Dad
Beaten UWO student can't remember what happened: Dad
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Last Updated: 16th October 2009, 3:07pm
LONDON, Ont. — A student said to have been out of control and delusional before he was beaten by police during a violent arrest at the University of Western Ontario doesn’t remember what happened, his father said Friday.
Merzuk Zeljkovic said he was unable to explain what had sparked the incident involving his son Irnes, which was captured on surveillance video and viewed by tens of thousands on the Internet.
“I don’t know what’s happened,” his father told The Canadian Press.
“Irnes no remember. I’m upset.”
Zeljkovic, 22, visited the family doctor Friday and planned to talk to a lawyer, his father said.
The video shows half-a-dozen officers pummelling the student in a campus building hallway, prompting a wide range of reaction from severe criticism that excessive force was used to support for the police action.
During the 90 second clip, police are seen kneeing the student aggressively in the torso, repeatedly beating him on the back with batons and punching him hard.
His mother, who asked her name not be used, said her son was “still shocked,” was tired, and just wanted to sleep.
She also said she had no idea what prompted the incident, saying she was waiting until he was in better shape to try to figure out what had happened.
“I don’t know, really. All of us are all so shocked. I have no idea,” she said in a telephone interview.
“We just need time.”
She said her son had some injuries from the arrest, but said she couldn’t describe them.
“I can’t talk now. I’m sorry. I’m so stressed and shaking,” she said.
Elgin Austen, director of campus police, said his officers were initially called after a delusional student, believing himself to be a professor, barged into an eighth-floor office and attempted to evict its occupant.
“He thought he was somebody else. He didn’t recognize his position or where he was — he thought he was a professor at Western and he named a professor,” Austen said in an interview.
The powerful, 220-pound fourth-year student was “hyped up” and resisted arrest and efforts to calm him down before city police, who arrived within minutes, used force to subdue him, said Austen, a former deputy chief of operations at London police.
Police said they had no prior contact with Zeljkovic.
“He must have been a good student or we would have had contact with him and we haven’t,” Austen said, adding this was the worst such incident he had seen in more than six years as campus police head.
“Something has happened more recently in his life to create this situation.”
Toxicology tests were being done to see whether he was under the effects of drugs although alcohol was not involved, police said.
Despite criticism from some who had viewed the video, Austen said it’s not surprising some viewers would have misinterpreted what they saw.
“Once they hit YouTube and other areas like that, the thing takes off and has a life of its own,” Austen said.
“People judge based on what they saw, and some people at least become instant experts.”
He did say the crowd who witnessed the arrest first-hand were respectful and did not interfere while police did their job.
Police were completing their investigation into the incident, reviewing the use of force, and were making counselling available to those impacted, including Zeljkovic and his family.
The video can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v17mj553jzhM.
- Written by Colin Perkel in Toronto
CP
