A video of a Toronto police officer wrestling with a young black man outside of an LCBO at Sheridan Mall is less about excessive force and more about an officer reacting to an assault, police say.

The video, which appeared Friday on Facebook, shows an officer, with a cut on his head, trying to detain a black man on the ground while exchanging profanity with an unruly crowd around him shouting charges of racism.

According to Mark Pugash, Director of Corporate Communications at the Toronto Police Service, the officer was reacting to being punched in the chest after asking for identification.

“The man began to pace back and forth in front of the LCBO and the officer requested back-up,” Pugash said in an email. “As the officer was waiting for other officers to attend, the man was fidgety and kept moving his hands in and out of his jacket and pants pocket. This caused the officer to have safety concerns.”

The man entered the store and allegedly threw garbage at the officer’s feet. When the officer asked for his ID, “the man allegedly swung his arm, striking the officer’s chest.”

But according to a witness who posted the video to Facebook, the officer was suspicious of every black person entering the store.

“Every black person who walked into the #LCBO at #sheridanmall, the officer would stare at them in an intimidating manner,” he writes. “Nevertheless, a young black guy walked into the liquor store and the officer grabbed him and took him outside the liquor store and told him he wasn’t allowed in the liquor store.”

He later states “The officer was still standing in front of the liquor store instigating the problem because he was keen to do something to the gentleman.” The witness walked away, and when he turned back, “the officer was punching the gentleman and tackled him down aggressively with his knees and neck.”

The witness says “this officer is a power tripper and he felt powerless and disrespected that’s why he did what he did.”

Pugash says the officer’s intention was to issue the man a trespass notice, which the officer is lawfully entitled to do, when the man struck the officer. The man was arrested and faces charges of assaulting a peace officer.

According to the Facebook poster, the violent incident didn’t have to happen.

“All of this was preventable by the officer going back inside the liquor store to do what he was there to do after he told the gentleman he wasn’t allowed inside the liquor store,” he writes. “Instead he stood there because he felt that the young man had no fear for him as an officer of the law so he had to make the young man fear him by punching him, knee on his neck, and using profanities to people who were trying to help him out so he doesn’t choke the young man on the ground with his knees.”

What disturbed Pugash most were the actions of the crowd, including the person seen in the video trying to obstruct the arrest.

“What is especially concerning is that members of the public shout down an officer trying to make a lawful arrest and try to free the person he has in his custody,” Pugash said. “This is dangerous behaviour and troubling as people in this crowd seem to want to take the law into their own hands.”

It’s not the first time police have had to deal with a crowd turning on their members. In October, hundreds of people swarmed police officers during Nuit Blanche at Yonge and Dundas Square, shouting and throwing bottles. In that incident, the badly outnumbered police left the square through doors to the Dundas station subway.