A Toronto judge tossed out nine firearm and drug charges on Monday after finding a police officer hit the accused man in the head with a gun as the man was compliant and face-down on the ground, hands behind his back.

The then 19-year-old man, Derek MacIsaac, required three stitches for a gash on his head after the arrest in May 2017, according to the ruling from Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell. She found “serious credibility problems” with the evidence of police officers who were at the arrest, none of whom testified MacIsaac was struck while restrained on the ground. MacIsaac’s account was backed up by two non-police witnesses.

One of the police officers said he did strike MacIsaac in the head with the barrel of his service firearm earlier in the arrest, when MacIsaac was still seated in a taxi. Forestell found his evidence “highly improbable.”

“I find that the force used against Mr. MacIsaac was unreasonable and excessive and that the integrity of the judicial process would be undermined by allowing the prosecution of Mr. MacIsaac to proceed,” she said in her ruling. She did not rule on whether MacIsaac’s arrest was justified or make a finding as to which police officer struck MacIsaac while he was on the ground.

Forestell’s decision is being reviewed by the Toronto Police Professional Standards Unit, according to a Toronto police spokesperson. None of the officers are currently facing disciplinary charges in connection with the arrest.

“This was an egregious use of a service weapon,” MacIsaac’s lawyer, Hussein Aly, said in an email. “Had the firearm discharged, someone could have been killed. This type of conduct alone warrants a stay of proceedings.”

Officers from the gun and gang task force started surveilling MacIsaac on the evening of May 14, 2017 after a confidential informant told Det. Liam Wauchope about a man who was drinking and had pulled out a handgun at a bar in Scarborough, according to the ruling.

MacIsaac was wearing clothing that matched the described man and Det.-Const. Shawn McKenzie testified he saw MacIsaac get into a cab with his left hand pressed against his left waistband, which he and the other officers interpreted as a sign that he could be armed. Police followed the cab, which had three passengers including MacIsaac, until it stopped outside an apartment building on McCowan Road.

The cab was surrounded by police officers who proceeded to arrest MacIsaac and the two other men in the cab.

McKenzie testified he hit MacIsaac with the barrel of his service firearm while MacIsaac was inside the taxi. It was a“distractionary strike” to MacIsaac when another officer yelled “gun,” he said. McKenzie said he could not see a gun but could not see MacIsaac’s hands and believed MacIsaac could be attempting to use a gun. McKenzie and another officer grabbed MacIsaac, pulled him out of the cab and onto the ground, put his hands behind his back and handcuffed him. They did not find a gun on him, but did find a loaded 9 mm handgun in the cab. Two other men were pulled out of the taxi and also arrested.

MacIsaac, however, testified that he was hit on the head with a metal object while he was face-down on the ground. After he was hit, he said he heard one officer say: “Why did you do that?” and another say: “Because I had to.”

MacIsaac admitted in testimony that he was dealing drugs at the time and that he had an ounce each of cocaine and crack cocaine on him that night. He denied having a gun or putting a gun in the cab.

One of the men in the cab testified he saw an officer hit MacIsaac in the head with a gun while he was on the ground. Another witness who was waiting for a friend in the lobby of the apartment building testified that she saw someone strike downwards toward MacIsaac after he was pulled out of the car. She went over to see if he was all right and recognized him. He was covered in blood, she said.

She said an officer told her not to talk to him. “Why not, he’s hurt,” she said she responded. She said the officer told her: “That’s what happens when you are running with a loaded gun and an ass full of crack.”

Forestell said she accepted MacIsaac’s “consistent and credible” evidence about when he was hit, which was supported by the two other witness accounts. She found McKenzie’s evidence “highly improbable” in the context of all the evidence. She noted in particular that it was unlikely he would have reached his gun into the taxi to hit MacIsaac, an action that would have put himself in the line of fire and risked his gun being grabbed.

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Forestell also found credibility concerns with some of the other arresting officers. One testified he was looking elsewhere at the time McKenzie said he struck MacIsaac in the cab, which she found improbable. Another officer said he would not have missed seeing an officer hit MacIsaac while on the ground.

Forestell said she was troubled by the fact that none of the officers filled out “use-of-force” forms after the arrest, and that the senior officers did not ask about use-of-force during a briefing considering the injuries sustained by MacIsaac which required stitches. An injury report documenting MacIsaac’s head wound sustained during the arrest was completed by one of the officers.