Police dog prompts complaint

A Clyde River man has filed a complaint, alleging RCMP used unnecessary force when he was apprehended by the teeth of their 86-pound purebred German Shepherd.

Police charged Archie Aipellee, 19, with attempted robbery following a chase through the tundra between Iqaluit and Apex during the early hours of Sept. 23. He’s accused of sticking up a cabbie with a knife.

Police tracked Aipellee with the help of Lar, the “V” division’s police dog. When they discovered him lying beneath a communications tower, police asked Aipellee to get up and put his hands where they could see him. When he didn’t, police released the dog, which bit him into compliance.

Aipellee says he never heard those orders.

“It was scary,” he said. “I couldn’t do nothing. The only way to protect myself was to put my hands over my head.”

He’s filed a statement to the commission for public complaints against the RCMP.

“I feel like I never deserved it.”

After spending over $100 at the bar on tequila shooters and other drinks, he says he doesn’t remember much from the evening. Still, he said that if police did issue a command to stand up and show his hands, “I would have heard them.”

Aipellee was reportedly so drunk at the time of the attempted robbery, the taxi driver disarmed him before he fled across the tundra.

Photographs of Aipellee following the arrest, taken during a visit to the hospital following the arrest, show cuts across his face, scalp, back and shoulders. He says some of those scratches still haven’t healed.

Aipellee faces charges of attempted armed robbery and breach of probation. He is to appear in court January 19 in Clyde River.

The probation order dates back to when he was convicted of assaulting two men in Clyde River on April 13 with a baseball bat.