Delta police granted extension
in police beating investigation
Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun, Oct. 5, 2010
Yao Wei Wu, 44, who lives in Southeast Vancouver
was confronted at 2:20 a.m. by two plainclothes police officers
called to the residence where a woman was being attacked
by her husband. Photo: PNG.
VANCOUVER — Delta police have been given another extension to investigate the mistaken beating of a man by Vancouver police.
Bruce Brown, deputy police complaint commissioner, said Tuesday the request by Delta police in early September for a further one-month extension to complete its investigation was granted by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.
The new date for completing the investigation is Oct. 23. It was originally set to be finished by early July but Delta police had asked for a further two-month extension until Sept. 18.
The case involves Yao Wei Wu, a tile installer who suffered serious injuries when he was beaten outside his own home on Jan. 21. A civil lawsuit filed by Wu and his wife claims constables Nicholas Florkow and Bryan London did the beating. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Wu, 44, claims he was dragged out of his house, suffered fractures to his face and injuries to his legs and back. His eyes were swollen shut. His wife, Chi Nan Man, says she has suffered serious psychological trauma after witnessing the attack.
Florkow and London arrived at Wu’s home around 2 a.m. after responding to a domestic assault call. The officers were told the caller was a woman with a baby and that she was being assaulted by her husband.
The Vancouver police initially said Wu resisted arrest but later Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu apologized to Wu and his family after it was determined that the call to police had originated from the home’s basement suite and police knocked at the wrong door.
Three months after the incident, the Wu family issued a statement through their lawyer, Cameron Ward, saying they were very dissatisfied with the investigation by Delta police, feeling the two officers should have been charged weeks after the assault.
Wu’s lawyer, Cameron Ward, called the latest delay “unbelievable, since there is no mystery about what happened or who was involved. Two men woke Mr. Wu up in the middle of the night and injured him so badly on his own front doorstep that he was rushed to hospital. If the perpetrators were civilians, the investigation would have taken perhaps a week at most.
“The delay is solely attributable to the fact that the men who assaulted Mr. Wu were police officers. This case starkly illustrates why police should not be investigating other police officers.”
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