On June 6, 2019, Brian Halcrow woke up in a jail cell in Thompson, Man., with four stitches across his forehead, a torn-up sweater and no recollection of how he got there.

An officer on the scene that night said RCMP Const. Jeremiah Dumont-Fontaine punched Halcrow twice in self-defence after Halcrow tried to hit the officer during an altercation outside the Thompson Inn, according to court documents.

But now, newly disclosed court documents obtained by CBC News, along with descriptions of video surveillance footage by Manitoba's police watchdog and interviews with Halcrow's family and friends, suggest that's not what happened.

His best friend, Thelma Moar, says Halcrow was a peaceful man, too weakened by multiple strokes to ever pose a real threat.