Hours after a Paulding County sheriff’s deputy was fired amid a GBI investigation into his use of force, lawyers for the man injured in the incident have asked for an obstruction charge against their client to be dropped.
Former deputy Michael McMaster, who injured 30-year-old landscaper Tyler Canaris as he was walking to work last year, was terminated for issues unrelated to the GBI’s investigation, Paulding sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Ashley Henson confirmed. McMaster was fired for department policy violations that were discovered after the GBI was asked to investigate the use-of-force incident, Henson said.
The GBI’s investigation is ongoing, and McMaster has not been charged with a crime, Henson said.
In December, about nine months after the incident, the Paulding solicitor filed one count of obstruction against Canaris.
The use-of-force incident began when McMaster responded to a call about a suspicious person breaking into cars in the Evans Mill neighborhood, the sheriff’s office previously confirmed. McMaster stopped Canaris because he partially matched the description of the suspicious person.
In an interaction captured by McMaster’s dashboard camera, Canaris displays confusion as McMaster tries to detain him. McMaster repeatedly tells Canaris to take off his backpack and that he’s being detained, saying that if Canaris doesn’t comply he’s going to “end up on the ground.”
Canaris’ lawyers, who announced plans to file a civil rights suit against Paulding, have said Canaris was never given the opportunity to comply with McMaster’s commands.
Dashcam video shows Canaris continuing to protest as McMaster grabs the man’s wrist and pushes him against the hood of the patrol car. Then, McMaster grabs Canaris around the waist and hoists him backward, slamming him to the ground. The impact fractured Canaris’ skull and broke his collarbone, according to the incident report.
At a news conference announcing their civil rights suit, Canaris’ lawyers raised questions about McMaster’s past conduct, claiming he had a history of aggressive behavior. They shared documentation from McMaster’s personnel file in which one of the deputy’s former supervisors at the jail wrote that they “recognized that Deputy McMaster can be unnecessarily overly aggressive in handling situations that arise in the detention center.”
Canaris hired lawyers the week after the incident in March 2022, but the case did not become public until video footage from the incident was anonymously posted on YouTube in February. The video led to a public outcry. Soon after, the sheriff’s office requested the GBI to take over the investigation and placed McMaster on administrative duty.
After the news of McMaster’s firing became public, Canaris’ criminal defense attorney, Torris Butterfield, released a statement calling for the county to drop the misdemeanor obstruction charge.
“We are pleased that the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office has finally taken action and fired Deputy Michael McMaster for the illegal use-of-force used against Tyler Canaris,” Butterfield said. “The Paulding County Solicitor’s Office now needs to do the right thing and drop the criminal charge against Tyler Canaris. We have sent an official demand to Paulding County to resolve the civil case and will continue our pursuit of justice on behalf of Tyler Canaris so that others may avoid a similar fate while interacting with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office.”
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