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“They continued to stand by and do nothing while my husband was on the ground seconds from having his arm snapped broken,” she wrote. “They even continued to stand by and do nothing when my husband looked (one of them) in the eyes, told him his arm was about to break and asked all of them for help.”

Two female paramedics did radio their dispatch and ask for more police officers to respond immediately to the escalating scene.

A second officer arrived just minutes after Crescenzi was on scene and Tasered the suspect. Almost immediately afterwards, tense words were exchanged by the officer and firefighters and efforts were made to notify the fire supervisor on duty.

In an Aug. 22 email to Chief Charles Bordeleau, obtained by the Citizen, Melanie Crescenzi expresses her disappointment with the force and the chief’s office.

After the call, Crescenzi wrote, her husband discovered that the man he had attempted to arrest was “aboriginal, deeply under the influence of drugs and … had been training and practicing MMA fighting for over 20 years.”

Crescenzi takes issue with what she believes could have happened if the second officer hadn’t arrived: at best, her husband would have been injured; at worst, he may have had to reach for his gun and shoot the suspect, which could have had fatal consequences with implications for not only her family, but also the police force.

“We both know how that latter scenario would turn out — no one would care that the individual was assaulting police; instead my husband would be portrayed as the racist, white police officer that killed an aboriginal man and his life, along with mine, our son’s and our families’ lives would have been ruined.”