Knife-wielding woman shot by Mountie four times on Trans-Canada Highway found not criminally responsible

A court has ruled a knife-wielding woman — who was shot by a Mountie four times as she ran towards him after climbing onto the roof of a truck on the Trans-Canada Highway — was not criminally responsible.

A Brandon judge agreed to a joint submission by the Crown and defence last week to find Jacqueline Armes not criminally responsible.

Court heard Armes, 54, has bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. She remains in custody and is scheduled to appear before the Mental Health Review Board on Jan. 5.

“I am satisfied there are some complex psychiatric issues here, based on what I read in the forensic report,” provincial court Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said Thursday.

Armes was charged with assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace and mischief under $5,000.

The shooting happened in the Municipality of North Cypress-Langford — near Road 88 West, about nine kilometres west of Carberry — on the night of May 12. The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba publicly released its report on the shooting Wednesday after reviewing video from the officer’s body-worn camera.

The RCMP began equipping its Manitoba officers with body cameras in November 2024, and nearly all those officers now have the technology, the police force said last week.

The IIU cleared the officer involved in September but did not release a report at the time because Armes was facing criminal charges stemming from the incident.

A Carberry RCMP officer went to the scene after someone contacted them about “an erratic person walking in traffic,” throwing items at passersby and removing her clothing.

The IIU interviewed Armes, who was not named in the report, one day after the incident. Armes told investigators she “needed to pray on the side of the highway” and that she could not “tell who was good or evil,” the report said.

She confirmed she was holding a knife, ignored repeated demands to drop the weapon and was moving towards the officer when he fired, the report said.

Armes told investigators she was not intoxicated at the time, that police were “just doing their jobs” and that she “was a threat to society,” the report stated.

The video from the officer’s camera shows her screaming and damaging vehicles, the report found, and the officer can be heard pleading with her to drop the weapon and to stop moving towards him. He moved backwards to keep his distance from Armes so he would “not be forced to shoot her” as she moved towards him while waving the knife, the report found.

A video provided by the driver of a semi-truck also showed the shooting was justified, the IIU said.

The officer fired five shots, and Armes was hit four times — in her left shoulder, abdomen, right hand and right leg. She underwent multiple surgeries, the report said.

The officer said in a use-of-force report provided to the IIU that he knew Armes “from previous dealings.” She told him she was cleaning up garbage along the highway, he said.

Armes moved into oncoming traffic and “lunged with her weapon” at a passenger’s side window of a passing vehicle, the use-of-force report said. Armes, who was holding one knife and had another in her waistband area, approached another vehicle and started kicking the window, the officer said.

A passing driver who was there before RCMP arrived told investigators the woman threw something at his vehicle and kicked it. She “charged at him” when he got out to assess the damage.

Another motorist, who encountered Armes after the officer arrived, said she climbed onto the hood of his truck, kicked the window and climbed onto the roof before jumping off.

A passenger in another vehicle said Armes swiped one of the vehicle’s tires with a knife.

Police later found two knives and a mini-saw used that is to cut bones at the scene.

The Free Press has requested to see the video from the officer’s body camera and was told to file a freedom-of-information request.

— with files from Dean Pritchard

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca