The arrest of a Blue Jays fan caught on video has raised questions about whether police used excessive force while ejecting him from the Rogers Centre on Friday.

The shaky video, shot by Eddie Pereira on his cell phone, shows a Toronto police officer grabbing a man from behind and locking his arms around his neck. Then, two officers appear to drag him headfirst towards a brick wall before taking him down and handcuffing him.

It’s impossible to know the context of the scene because the sound on the video is not at all clear. But given the arrested man’s body language it does not appear to be a threatening situation that would justify that level of force, Toronto lawyer Paul Copeland said.

“It looks like the second cop who comes and grabs him from the back is not justified in using the force he did, and taking him into wall the way they did doesn’t look justified either,” Copeland said.

“It may be that they go off balance when they’re there, but you might conclude that they sort of rammed him into the wall.”

Section 25 of the Criminal Code states that police are justified in “using as much force as necessary,” Copeland said. “The question is, was he using more force than necessary? It certainly looks that way.”

The man taken down and another man seen briefly in the beginning of the video in handcuffs are two of the three people ejected from the Rogers Centre Friday for “throwing objects onto the field,” said Mal Romanin, a Blue Jays spokesperson.

Security at that game was beefed up with security guards employed by the Yankees which has raised the ire of some Jays fans.

The third man is 21-year-old Josh Blair, who was not arrested and says he doesn’t know the unidentified men. He admits that he lobbed a peanut into the bullpen to try and give his losing Jays a pick-me-up, and that one of the two arrested men high-fived him as he was taken out by security.

At that point there were no arrests. The men simply had to leave the stadium, Romanin said. The arrest that was captured on video was for something that happened after, he said. “Any arrests were for behaviour determined by the police beyond anything like throwing a peanut. It was for behaviour well and above beyond that. If you call the police you’ll find out.”

But after watching the video, Tony Vella, a communications officer with the Toronto Police Services, said there was nothing he could say about it until he could get “all the facts.”

“I would have to speak to the officers involved and find out exactly what their perspective was,” he said.

Pereira, the fan who shot the video, initially didn’t think much of a couple of fans getting ejected. “Just another day in 107,” and 108, the stadium sections beside and above the opposing team’s bullpen where heckling is most likely to be heard.

“It was peaceful, the guy was being arrested and he was asking, ‘Why am I being arrested,’” he said. Then, “the cop is saying f--- you, shut up, the whole nine yards. I knew something wasn’t pretty so I started to record it,” he said.

“The guy who got smashed against the wall” was demanding the police officer’s badge number when “the other cop behind him went charging him,” Pereira said.

Matthew Sherlock, however, saw it different.

“I was at the game Friday night and the place was full of 18-25 year olds drinking, cussing at the Yankee players, throwing paper airplanes at players or onto the field when the Yankees were on defence,” Sherlock said in an email to the Star.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“Terrible behaviour. I was sitting fairly close to the Yankee bullpen where fans were taunting and challenging players to fights. … I was embarrassed.”