Man dies during arrest, IIU investigating By: Tyler Searle Posted: 10:27 AM CDT Monday, Oct. 16, 2023 Last Modified: 9:17 AM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023 Updates

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Manitoba’s police watchdog is investigating after a man died in custody Sunday night in Winnipeg.

Officers responded to the area of Broadway and Sherbrook Street shortly before 11 p.m., after receiving reports of a man running into traffic and acting erratically, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Monday.

The man was taken into custody, but went into medical distress, police said. He was transported to hospital in critical condition and later died.

Police had not yet confirmed the man’s identity, WPS said.

Members of the WPS homicide unit were notified, and the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba has assumed the investigation.

“I was just sort of in shock,” said Alex Braun, 23, who along with three friends watched officers forcefully take a man to the ground and place him under arrest.

The Free Press spoke Monday with three of the four witnesses.

“I just couldn’t believe it was happening and as things kept unfolding… it just got more and more serious. We were trying to piece together what was happening, and then we saw this morning that someone had died,” said a woman in her 20s, who asked to withhold her name.

None in the group saw the moments leading up to the incident, but Braun filmed parts of the initial arrest.

In a short video, two WPS officers are seen struggling with a suspect lying face-down on the pavement. Each officer strikes the suspect multiple times, with one delivering a combination of punches and knees to the man’s upper body.

The struggle continues for approximately one minute before four additional police cruisers arrive on scene, blocking the camera’s view.

Braun said his group moved to the southwest side of Sherbrook Street and watched as first responders appeared to provide medical care to the suspect, including checking his pulse and performing what looked like chest compressions.

The suspect remained restrained and appeared unmoving on the ground before he was taken away by ambulance, witnesses said.

According to the witnesses, another person was also lying unmoving on the nearby concrete and being attended to by first responder.

It was unclear whether the second person, who was also taken away in an ambulance, is related to the arrest.

All three witnesses said they spoke with IIU investigators Monday.

According to Steve Summerville, president of Toronto-based training and consultation firm Stay Safe Instructional Programs, the witness video provides “a trailer; a little movie clip.”

“It doesn’t give you the genesis or the explanation as to what transpired prior to the officers arriving. What the officers saw, dealt with or were confronted with — if anything at all — at the moment of their arrival, and what sort of resistance, if any, the officers were provided,” he said Monday by phone.

Summerville, a former officer with the Toronto Police Service, has testified more than 40 times as an expert witness on police use-of-force incidents for both prosecution and defence attorneys in Canada.

After reviewing the video, he said it is too early, and there is too limited context, to determine whether the police actions were appropriate.

Summerville said, in his assessment, the suspect appeared to be resisting arrest and his left hand was not fully restrained by handcuffs at the time officers struck him.

Strikes to the upper body — including knees — can be considered heavy but acceptable force, depending on the circumstances, he noted.

“Anytime there is a death or serious injury of an individual… (independent investigators) do investigate the nature of the death,” Summerville said. “It doesn’t mean there is fault or not fault from an officer.”

The Manitoba Office of the Chief Medical Examiner must determine a cause of death and the IIU must complete its investigation before the facts of what occurred are available, he added.

Police and cadets closed the eastbound lanes at Broadway from Sherbrook to Furby streets Monday morning, as investigators worked to clear the scene.

At 10 a.m., yellow caution tape cordoned off sections of the intersection, and evidence markers were scattered throughout the roadway and a nearby parking lot.

Numerous police units — including the WPS forensics van— were at the scene.

The area reopened to traffic late Monday morning.

The WPS is directing all further requests for comment to the IIU.

The police watchdog did not release additional information about the incident Monday and does not accept requests for comment on active investigations.

The IIU sent a news release about the incident on Tuesday morning, about 22 hours after the WPS announced the man’s death.

“During the male’s arrest, he began to have trouble breathing. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service was on site for an unrelated incident and immediately provided medical care,” the IIU release states.

The IIU is asking witnesses or anyone with video of the incident to call them toll-free at 1-844-667-6060.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca