OSHAWA, Ont. - A young black man told a court Wednesday he didn't get the chance to fight back as a Toronto police officer and his brother rained blows on his body and struck his head with a long metal pipe nearly three years ago.
Dafonte Miller laid out his account of the Dec. 28, 2016 encounter in a packed Oshawa, Ont., courtroom, saying Michael and Christian Theriault chased him between two homes in Whitby, Ont., in the early hours of the morning.
A man with long hair, believed to be Christian Theriault, placed him in a headlock while a man with short hair, believed to be Michael Theriault, struck Miller's back and body, the 22-year-old testified. Miller said he squirmed out of the headlock after feeling something hard hit his head.
It was then that he first saw the pipe, Miller told the court. The short-haired man was wielding the pipe, hitting Miller's face and head as the young man tried to shield himself with his right arm, he said. The long-haired man, he said, "pretty much helped his brother."
At one point, Miller was on the ground, but then got up and ran towards the door of a nearby house, he said.
"I didn't really get a chance to fight back, I was more trying to defend my face," Miller told the court. "I seen the pipe, you know…I was trying to use the rest of my strength to get out."
Michael Theriault, who was off duty at the time, and Christian Theriault are jointly charged with aggravated assault, and separately charged with obstruction of justice over how they portrayed it to investigators. They have pleaded not guilty.
Court has heard the brothers told investigators Miller was the one who attacked them with a pipe after they caught him breaking into their parents' truck. The pair told police they feared for their lives.
Miller, however, said he and two friends were wandering the streets waiting to go meet up with some girls when they were intercepted by the brothers.
The long-haired man asked if they were from the neighbourhood, and Miller's friend Antonio Jack said no, pointing to the area where they lived, he testified. The short-haired one then asked what they were doing there, Miller said.
The conversation had so far been casual and "I didn't think anything was weird until we got asked what we were doing here," he told the court.
Miller said he asked why they were being questioned and the short-haired man replied that "he's a cop, he can ask what he wants."
The group laughed and started walking away but when Miller looked back, he realized they were being chased, Miller said. The group dispersed and Miller tried to run to the front door of a home, but the brothers were catching up so he veered between the house and the neighbouring one, he said.
"That's the property where I lost my eye," he said.
Miller told the court his left eye "pretty much burst'' during the incident and he has since undergone two surgeries help repair the area. He said he now wears a prosthetic eye on that side.
In the weeks after he was discharged from the hospital, Miller said he had to sleep in the same bed as his mother so she could keep his head in the right position and prevent his eye from "bleeding out."
The young man said his right eye was also badly hurt and he was initially told he could go blind on that side as well. Miller also said the "structural bones'' of his face were broken as a result of the incident, his wrist was fractured and he had bruises in many places.