A Montreal man who witnessed the arrest of a young woman (video) is speaking out against the behaviour of the officers involved.
Jeremiah Hayes said he was riding his bike near the corner of Berri and Ontario Sts. at about 4:15 P.M. Thursday when he saw two police officers attempted to put a homeless woman in the back of their squad car.
Holding her arms behind her back, the officers pinned the woman against the vehicle. It was at that point the woman began screaming.
"My arm hurts," she cries out repeatedly. The woman continues to scream as the officers hold her against the car.
At one point, as the trio continues to struggle with one another, Hayes said one of the officers appears to slam the woman's head against the trunk of the vehicle.
"I told you my arm was hurting," the woman tells the officers as her head is pinned against the trunk. "Did you not hear me when I told you my arm was hurting?"
She then calls out to be taken to hospital, asking for an ambulance.
The officers place her in the back of the police car and can then be seen searching the woman's belongings.
"There's no reason to hurt her," Jeremiah Hayes told CTV Montreal. "[The police officers] are big and strong enough that they don't have to resort to that kind of physical violence."
Police say a lot went on before the video starts.
They say the woman was stopped for drug use and she was aggressive, screaming and agitated.
They say when they went to cuff her, she bit one of the officers on the arm and wouldn't let go.
They say when you see them hitting her head on the patrol car, they were trying to get her to realease her bite.
The woman faces charges of assault and drug possession.