Montreal police investigating after officer caught on camera shoving man in Chinatown

Montreal police have launched an internal investigation after a video began circulating on social media showing an officer violently shoving a man to the ground in a Chinatown alleyway.

A spokesperson for the police said the service's Direction de l'intgrit et des normes professionnelles will be overseeing the investigation.

CBC News spoke with the person who caught the incident on video Thursday, filming it at around lunchtime in the alley between St-Urbain and Clark streets.

The police were approaching people in the alley and appeared to be searching them, said the witness, whomCBC has agreed to notidentify.

Most of the people being searched were compliant, but it was when the officers approached a man in a makeshift shelter constructed of a couple of pallets that things got heated, the witness said.

WATCH | Montreal police officer shoves man to ground:

Video shows man being shoved to ground by Montreal police

2 years ago

Duration 0:22

A video shared with CBC shows a man being shoved to the ground by Montreal police. The witness says the man was resting in a makeshift shelter made out of wooden pallets. Police say they are investigating the incident.

One officer appeared to pull a supporting plank from the shelter in a way that caused a portion of the structureto fall on the man, the witness said. The move appeared to be intentional, and the man was then touching his head and looking at his hand as if checking for blood, the witness said.

The man became upset and was yelling, but the police were pushing him repeatedly and attempting to chase him away, the witness said.

At one point, the witness captured the man being pushed down while he was walking away. He slammed into a concrete barrier. In the video, it is impossible to hear what is being said between the officers and man.

The man was in his socks and "trying to get his shoes," the witness said, which were at the now destroyed pallet shelter.

He also could have been trying to get other belongings because "I don't know what else he had in that hut," the witness said.

At one point, the man appeared to run around to the other side of the alley in an attempt to access the shelter from another angle, but the officers again chased him away, the witness said. One officer threatened the man with his club, the witness said.

Sam Watts, CEO of the Welcome Hall Mission, said the video issurprising but he said in every profession there are people who behave in an uncharacteristic way.

"We know that a lot of steps have been taken to try to improvebut that doesn't mean the improvement is at 100 per cent," said Watts, and this videosends the message that there are still steps to take.

"This is not the way to respond to people who are in precarious situations. We need to do better."

Montreal MayorValrie Plante said on Twitter that she was upset by the videoand reaffirmed the police service is looking into the matter.

"The actions committed by the officers are completely unacceptable and cast a shadow over the excellent work of our police officers," she said.