A Peterborough police officer has sustained non-life threatening injuries after attempting to help a woman in downtown Peterborough who police say was in crisis and threatening self-harm.
In a media release, the Peterborough Police Service states that, shortly after 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning (July 23), police received a call regarding a woman in the area of Water and Hunter Streets who was threatening self-harm and experiencing a mental health crisis.
When the officer arrived on the scene and located the woman, the release states, she pulled out a box cutter and held it to her neck.
The media release states the officer had a very brief moment to intervene and prevent the woman from harming herself.
“During the incident, as the officer was attempting to help the woman, the officer sustained injuries from the box cutter,” the media release states.
A cell phone video taken by a witness and posted publicly on Facebook shows part of the interaction between the woman and the officer. In the video, the officer appears to suddenly grab the woman and force her to the ground. (That video has since been made unavailable.)
Police say the officer was taken to Peterborough Regional Health Centre for treatment and was released. The woman was apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital for crisis treatment.
Police say no further details will be released about the incident.
This story has been updated to remove a video embedded from Facebook, as the user changed the visibility from public to private, and to remove a screenshot from the video.
