A Whitehorse RCMP officer under investigation for the use of force will not be charged with any criminal offences related to an incident that occurred April 5, 2015.

A video posted online, and viewed more than 700,000 times, shows the officer in a private residence that night, punching a man in the face and trying to flip him over to handcuff him.

In the background, people can be heard crying and yelling at the officer.

Last spring, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) was called in to lead the investigation.

At a press conference held late Tuesday afternoon in Whitehorse, Susan Hughson, the executive director of ASIRT, acknowledged that an investigation like this is difficult for a community to have hanging over it for a year.

However, she said, it took time to get the Crown’s opinion and examine the use of force.

As well, she said, ASIRT worked with the Council of Yukon First Nations and the chief of the Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nation to select an elder as a community liaison.

“Some cases are very clear,” Hughson said.

“This is not one of those cases. This is one of those cases that, when you look at the evidence, it’s just not strong enough to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction on either side.”

She said a series of interviews gave a picture of what happened that night.

Hughson said the RCMP officer, who she did not publicly name, was responding to a 911 call about a noisy party at a Whitehorse house that was known to police.

The officer approached the residence alone and heard what sounded like an argument.

Through the door, he told the daughter of the homeowner that he would have to enter, based on the 911 call.

Once inside, the officer found signs of a party, but no fighting.

He approached a man sitting in a chair with his hands in his pockets.

The officer asked for identification. The man, who appeared intoxicated, said he had none, and provided the officer with a false name.

As the officer called the name in, the man pushed past him.

A struggle ensued, during which both parties used physical force.

The man elbowed the officer’s face. The officer struck the man with an elbow before putting a knee into his back and pinning him.

The officer then handcuffed the man and took him to the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

Hughson said there were many points during the evening when the officer could have made different decisions with regard to entering the home alone, and to the use of force.

However, she said the decisions he did make were not found to be criminal in nature.

“The officer has a lawful authority, in response to a 911 call, to enter a residence under his common law duty to preserve life,” Hughson said.

If he had started searching the residence, she said, that would have been outside the scope of his duty, but that’s not what happened.

The Crown felt the officer had the authority to enter the residence.

A use of force expert found the officer’s use of what is known as a vascular neck restraint to be reasonable.

The officer has been employed by the police force since 2000.

The officer (who was reassigned to administrative duty after the incident) will return to duties determined according to operational requirements.