Men accuse Winnipeg police officer of wrongful arrests while targeting parking outside Ethiopian restaurant

A Winnipeg police officer with a history of misconduct allegations is facing more scrutiny after three men say they believe he spent months targeting a restaurant in order to ticket illegal parkers and allege he wrongfully arrested two of the men.

Befekadu Abitew, 44, says it was a fairly typical day in February when he took a video of an incident involving Patrol Sgt. Jeffrey Norman outside Kokeb restaurant in downtown Winnipeg. 

The incident led to two men being arrested — and left one expert questioning why a high-ranking officer spent so much time focusing on parking violations.

Seeing Norman by the alleyway near the Edmonton Street restaurant, where Abitew is a regular, had become commonplace by that point, he said. 

He told CBC he believes Norman was targeting the restaurant, often waiting for drivers from ride-hailing services or food delivery workers to illegally park near a dumpster so he could ticket them.

“He’s terrorizing my community here, terrorizing people, purposely coming into that area,” Abitew said in an April interview, referencing Norman’s consistent presence at a local hangout for Ethiopians. 

“He’s always there hunting, purposely, to find if someone is parking in the back lane.”

Video captures arrest 

His friend, Tamerat Sisay, 43, who is another regular at Kokeb, also said he frequently saw Norman waiting outside the restaurant.

On Feb. 17, when Abitew spotted Norman and saw a car parked illegally in the alleyway, he said he had an idea of what was coming next, so he started recording on his phone.

The video shows a man, Ayele Abaya, 43, walking toward his car and getting in. Norman comes over, preparing to give him a ticket. Abitew and Sisay begin questioning Norman, asking why he’s wasting his time giving out tickets.

Norman then asks Abaya for his licence. Abaya questions why he has to give it to him.

Abaya was driving for Uber that day and had parked in the alleyway while he used a bathroom at a store two businesses down from Kokeb. 

“I said, ‘Hey officer, have I committed any crime?’ And then I tried to explain, but he wasn’t willing to listen to my story,” Abaya said.

WATCH | Ayele Abaya is taken into custody: 

Then Norman told Abaya he was being arrested for obstructing a peace officer. 

“I did not know what was going on — never in my life dreamt this will happen to me in Canada. After spending half of my life [here], this is the place I call home,” said Abaya, who was born in Ethiopia. 

Unlike Sisay and Abitew, Abaya hadn’t encountered Norman before that day.

“I was confused,” Abaya said. “I’ve never seen him, never heard of him before.”

History of lawsuits 

Norman has been an officer with Winnipeg police since at least 2003. During those two decades, he has been named in 10 lawsuits involving allegations of misconduct. 

Two of those lawsuits were filed in the last year. In March, Leo Lafreniere filed a lawsuit alleging Norman Tasered him and unlawfully arrested him after he was pulled over while riding his e-bike.

In December, Harjot Singh filed a lawsuit alleging Norman searched his workplace without a warrant, placed him in handcuffs and threatened to have him deported.

Norman denied the allegations in subsequent statement of defence documents filed in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench. 

Norman has never been criminally charged, and internal discipline records are not disclosed by Winnipeg police. 

Abitew said one of the reasons he’s coming forward is because he feels Winnipeg police must do something to address Norman’s conduct.

“Something has to be done. He just can’t keep doing this,” Abitew said.

“I’m sure there are very good police officers who are doing their job to protect and make this community safe, but him, he has to stop.”

‘I need accountability’

The video Abitew took shows Sisay — who was walking into Kokeb restaurant when he saw Norman waiting to ticket Abaya — telling the police officer there was no sign prohibiting parking and swearing at him.

Norman tells Sisay and Abitew to move away from the car as he speaks to the driver. Sisay maintains he can stand in a public place. 

WATCH | Patrol Sgt. Norman tells Sisay to move away:

After Abaya’s arrest, Norman is seen on the video walking over to Sisay and arresting him. Sisay was arrested for obstructing a peace officer, but says he has no idea why.

Abitew’s phone is then seized by Norman, who tells him he needs it for evidence.

WATCH | Patrol Sgt. Norman seizes Abitew’s phone:

“I’m here in a free country,” Sisay said. “Supposed to be free country.… He is going to be personally attacking our community.”

The February incident wasn’t Sisay’s first encounter with Norman either. He told CBC he had been ticketed by the officer at the same spot 10 days earlier.

That happened after Sisay, a mechanic, was test driving a customer’s car and it began to overheat. As he pulled over and popped the hood to put antifreeze in the vehicle, Norman drove up and ticketed him for parking illegally, he said.

Both he and Abaya say after their February arrests, they were detained for hours before being released. 

WATCH | Patrol Sgt. Norman arrests Sisay for obstruction:

Abaya said the memory of the incident haunts him.

“I can’t get out of my head,” he said.

“I need an apology, I need accountability, and then I need explanation.”

Charges never laid

Court records show charges were never formally laid against Sisay or Abaya.

Police say they are still waiting to hear from the court about how to proceed with the charges against Abaya. 

Text messages viewed by CBC show Abaya’s lawyer telling him the charges were dropped in April.

Abitew spent months going into the police station to ask for his phone back. He finally filed a Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) complaint on June 24. The LERA investigation is ongoing. 

At the beginning of August, over five months later, the phone he used to take the video was finally returned. 

One expert CBC spoke to said a Crown attorney would find this a difficult case to prosecute. 

“They’d have to ask themselves, ‘Is this in the public interest here?’ You know, this started with a parking ticket,” said Brandon Trask, an assistant law professor at the University of Manitoba and former Nova Scotia Crown attorney.

Trask questioned why someone with the rank of patrol sergeant would spend “an inordinate amount of time at that particular restaurant, dealing with parking issues.”

Norman flagged by garbage truck operator

The Winnipeg Police Service declined an interview for the story, because of the ongoing LERA complaint. In a statement, a spokesperson said the operator of a garbage truck flagged down Norman that day because they couldn’t access the bin in the back lane.

Cory Wiles, president of the Winnipeg Police Association, said there are a number of levels of police oversight that are “vastly higher, in our view, than that of any other public servant.”

Wiles said any member of the public who feels they have grounds can file a complaint against police with LERA. When it comes to disciplining an officer, there are well-established processes that Winnipeg police can pursue, he said. 

But Trask understands why the three men want to speak about what happened.

“You realize the state has so much power — these individual officers have so much power and discretion [and] for that to be used against you in a free country,” he said.

While he thinks police could make the argument for an officer arresting someone for not handing over a driver’s licence, he doesn’t understand why Sisay was arrested.

“That one for me was much more problematic,” he said.

“There’s certainly an argument that what the officer did could be perceived as essentially retaliation for some of the verbal comments that were made.”

Sisay said Norman gives the majority of “amazing” police officers in Winnipeg a bad name.

“I need to know how the Winnipeg Police Service let this guy go on the road and abuse the system and give them a bad name without any accountability,” he said.