Warning: The story contains a video that can be annoying to viewers
The RCMP has charged a man with an assault charge after a Poundmaker Cree Nation man was attacked Sunday in Battleford, Sask.
In a press release Wednesday afternoon, the RCMP said Adam Lesmeister, 46, was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with assault. He is scheduled to appear in North Battleford Provincial Court on August 22nd.
On Sunday, Colby Tootoosis, 40, was returning a trailer he had borrowed from his friends while his six-year-old daughter was sitting in her truck. Lawyer Eleanore Sunchild’s house surveillance video shows a man approaching Tootoosis and punching her in the face. The man then throws Tootoosis to the ground by his braid and puts him on his knees in his face.
The surveillance video shows the man repeatedly shouting, “Where are my pants?”
There were two more men, but they did not take part in the attack.
Watch the Tootoosis surveillance video being attacked here:
Sask. a man is attacked while unhooking the trailer
WARNING: This video may annoy some viewers. This surveillance video, made in Battleford, Sask., And provided by Eleanore Sunchild, shows three men approaching another while unhooking a trailer. One proceeds to punch him and throw him to the ground by his braid.
In a statement on social media on Tuesday, Tootoosis said the man was “aggressively demanding where his stolen property was … including a phone, bag and pants, and claimed they had tracked the phone and pointed out the location “.
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) said the attack had racial motivations and asked the RCMP to file charges.
Colby’s brother, Mylan Tootoosis, said the family is disappointed by the RCMP’s “slow” response time in filing charges and believes police would have reacted more quickly if the man who attacked his brother was indigenous instead of white.
“They react quickly when they look for a native,” he told CBC News on Wednesday afternoon.