Fatal police shooting justified: IIU

A report by Manitoba’s police watchdog says an officer was justified in fatally shooting a man who was swinging two knives in the hallway of an apartment building this fall.

The incident happened on the seventh floor of North Point Douglas Manor, a 10-storey Manitoba Housing building at 817 Main St., on the afternoon of Oct. 2. The Independent Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba released its report on the incident Tuesday.

The IIU said video confirmed the man had two knives in his hands while walking towards the officers and “was in very close proximity” to them before one fired his weapon. Another officer had previously fired a Taser at the man twice, with no effect.

Shortly before the incident, the man had told multiple people who checked on him in his suite that he had flooded the space, the report said. The flooding was severe enough that it caused flooding on other floors.

The man told his support worker he had taken crack cocaine and methamphetamine, that “everyone was out to get him” and that he wanted to die, the report said. The man later went into the hallway and began banging on doors and making threats, the report said.

Four shell casings were found in the hallway. The preliminary cause of death was noted to be gunshot wounds to the chest area, and meth and amphetamine were noted in the toxicology report. A final autopsy report is not complete.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca