Family of U of M student killed in 2023 police shooting wants answers from investigation

The family of a University of Manitoba student shot dead by police on New Year’s Eve in 2023 is again demanding answers from Alberta’s police watchdog, tasked with investigating the incident.

Afolabi Stephen Opaso’s family has, for the second time, issued a public statement calling for the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team to release its final report into the 19-year-old’s death.

“Despite multiple calls, requests… ASIRT has failed to provide any conclusive update or a copy of their final investigation report,” reads a statement signed by the Opaso family and provided to the Free Press by their lawyer, Jean-René Dominique Kwilu.

“This continued delay is unjustified and quite disturbing for us, and we genuinely wonder if our beloved brother will ever get justice.”

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba turned the probe into Opaso’s death over to Alberta’s police watchdog in January 2024, after learning one of the involved officers had ties to a provincial justice employee — potentially causing a conflict of interest.

In a phone interview, Kwilu said he wrote a confidential letter to the civilian director of the Alberta agency on Monday, requesting an update on the case.

Investigators from the Alberta team told Kwilu they had finalized their report in October 2024, and passed it on to the director for review, he said.

Eight months later, Opaso’s family has still not seen the report, he said.

“They need answers. There was an investigation and they haven’t been able to get closure or anything because it is still pending. They can’t really mourn, they can’t seek justice,” Kwilu said.

The family’s statement accused the police oversight agency of inaction, and said it is “prejudicing us and obstructing our ability to seek further recourse.”

They have demanded the agency’s civilian director respond with a formal, written update within seven days.

“As Afolabi’s family, we are entitled to be kept informed of the progress and outcome of an investigation in which we are a directly interested party,” the letter said.

“We trust that the Director will treat this matter with the seriousness it warrants.”

In an email statement, the Alberta agency said it expects to release its decision into the shooting before the end of August.

“There is no specific timeline that investigations are concluded on, although investigations on deaths generally take longer,” the statement said.

The agency had not yet seen the copy of the Opaso family’s letter when the Free Press requested comment, it said.

As of Wednesday, 560 days had passed since the ASIRT assumed the investigation on Jan. 10, 2024.

A review of the 10 most recent fatal police shooting investigations concluded by the agency shows it takes, on average, 640 days to release a final report.

Of those recent reports, the quickest was released in 22 days, while the longest was released after 1,161 days, the Free Press found.

The family hosted a press conference in December to mark the one-year anniversary of Opaso’s death and demand transparency into the investigation.

Opaso was an international student studying economics at the U of M. His friends and family have said he was experiencing a mental-health crisis on the day of the shooting.

The Winnipeg Police Service received reports of a person acting erratically, and two officers responded to a suite at 77 University Cres., finding a man wielding a pair of knives, former WPS chief Danny Smyth said after the incident.

The family is considering filing a civil claim against the WPS depending on the outcome of the report, Kwilu said.

Eyewitnesses present during the shooting have provided testimony that contradicts parts of the WPS account, including denying that Opaso was armed, he said.

A critical component of the report will be determining whether the officers were aware Opaso was experiencing a mental-health crisis when they were dispatched to the apartment, he added.

“Beyond just Afolabi, it is for the service to improve their way of doing things and see if there are any issues that can be fixed,” Kwilu said. “If processes were broken, or if processes were not followed, it needs to be corrected.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca