Tasering followed racial slurs, charges Fells

Staff-Sgt. Phil Barrett of the Digby RCMP detachment has asked for an independent investigation by the police force's major crimes unit of the incident that involved a number of off-duty police from Halifax.

Rev. Alden Fells, whose 19-year-old son Nathaniel was with Drummond, said the fight stemmed from a racial slur uttered by a white police officer who was dressed in plainclothes.

According to Fells, Drummond and his son Nathaniel, were walking down the street in the early morning hours of June 22, and a white man leaning in a doorway said, “What are you looking at n - - - - - ?”

Fells added that when Drummond approached, the man said: “You don’t want none of this. We’re 10 or 15 deep.”

A nearby van contained a number of off-duty police officers in town for a charity event, said Fells, and he said they left the van, some of them uttering racial slurs.

When two local RCMP officers who were in the vicinity attempted to diffuse the situation, the men from the van shouted, “He’s one of us,” referring to the person Drummond says was swinging at him.

In an interview, Drummond, 20, a Halifax resident who was visiting family in Digby, said the man from the van threw the first punch, but Drummond threw the first connecting punch.

Drummond said he and Nathaniel Fells then ran down the street with two local uniformed officers and 10 to 15 men from the van in pursuit. Drummond said a Digby RCMP officer then shot him with a Taser.

Drummond was charged with uttering threats, public disturbance and resisting arrest.

“It’s interesting that he wasn’t charged with assault,” said Rev. Fells, “in light of the fact that he knocked a person out.”

Fells said he was assured by Staff-Sgt. Phil Barrett of the RCMP detachment that the story would get out when cameras on the police cruiser’s dash were reviewed.

“But it turned out there were no videotapes in the machines,” he said

Fells said black youth had planned a protest at RCMP headquarters in Digby on Monday, but were concerned police would target them.

He said local black community leaders plan to meet with Staff-Sgt. Barrett to ensure a peaceful and orderly protest can be staged.