Police chief, WRHA to meet over false arrest

The city’s top cop is set to meet with the chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority to discuss the case of a health worker being wrongfully detained at the scene of a fatal stabbing last week.

“I’m hoping to have a discussion about what transpired,” Winnipeg Police Service Chief Gene Bowers told reporters on Wednesday.

“We have to recognize that this was a very dynamic call — someone lost their life — there was lots of things going on, so I look forward to the opportunity to… discuss what transpired and see where we can come together on this.”

The stabbing in the afternoon of June 18 near Henry Avenue and Main Street claimed the life of 55-year-old Ronald Alexander Grego Findlay. Winnipeg police, who said the suspect approached the victim and stabbed him unprovoked during an altercation, have since made an arrest in the killing.

Ray Samakese, 42, a community services co-ordinator who works out of the WRHA’s Main Street offices, said Tuesday he was embarrassed and traumatized when he was wrongfully detained at the scene for several hours.

WRHA interim CEO Jane Curtis and Margaret Schroeder, the president of CUPE Local 204, which represents Samakese, have both raised concerns over the arrest.

Samakese and colleagues who came across the scene went to check if a client they knew had been involved after hearing about an attack.

The arresting officers told Samakese he matched the description of the suspect, he said on Tuesday, despite colleagues of his saying he was working and couldn’t have been involved. He said he believes the fact he’s an Indigenous man was a factor.

He wants an apology from the police chief, he said on Tuesday.

Bowers said he would first talk with WRHA officials and “see where those discussions go.”

Samakese said the chief’s comments were vague.

“It would have been good to have more acknowledgement… I appreciate them reaching out to the WRHA, but I think it would have been nice to hear something… from the police directly,” said Samakese, who added he’d be open to a meeting with the chief.

“But we’ll take it as it comes and see what happens, I’m open to whatever discussions are had.”

The WRHA declined further comment on Wednesday.

Homicide detectives have since accused David Bryan Siemens, 37, of Findlay’s slaying.

He was arrested by major crimes investigators near Main Street and Logan Avenue on Monday morning and later charged with manslaughter.

Siemens has a lengthy record — including assaults, robberies, property crimes, weapons and drugs offences and court order breaches — dating back to 2008.

He also has longstanding issues with addictions and a recent penchant for carrying weapons on the streets of Winnipeg, court records show.

In April 2016, Siemens stabbed a man in the neck while they were hanging out with a group in the victim’s suite, doing methamphetamine, court heard.

The victim suffered a cut to an artery, but managed to slow the bleeding and seek medical help. He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Siemens was arrested about a week later.

Rather than stand trial in 2017, Siemens left the country and ended up in Israel to reconnect with his faith and church, which led him to come back to Canada to make amends, court heard at a 2023 hearing. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

Siemens was born in Winnipeg, but grew up in Winkler after he was adopted by a foster family, his lawyer at that hearing said.

He was given three years in prison and barred from possessing weapons for 10 years.

In September last year, Siemens pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and being unlawfully at large.

Siemens had been out on statutory release from Stony Mountain prison since June 17 of last year, where he was serving the aggravated assault sentence.

The day after he was released, he failed to attend a meeting with a parole officer and a later meeting for a urine test, court heard.

His lawyer, John Corona, told court Siemens had been working with a non-profit the day he was released, doing paid carpentry training, and submitted a urine test to his parole officer that day.

He used drugs the night he was released, Corona said, and was asked “by surprise” to come in for another test on June 18, 2025. Knowing he was going to fail, he absconded, said Corona.

He was then spotted by city police riding a bicycle down the street, shirtless, with a knife handle sticking out of his waistband on July 26 last year. He was given 90 days in jail.

Corona said Siemens’s family is from Nelson House Cree Nation.

“He’s worked at a variety of jobs, but addictions have been a struggle for him and continue to be,” Corona said at the September hearing.

Most recently, in February this year, Siemens was sentenced to time served for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and possession of methamphetamine.

He was pulled over by Winnipeg police cadets while he was riding a bike on a sidewalk in December, court heard in February, and police found a can of bear spray and about five grams of meth in his jacket.

— with files from Morgan Modjeski and Nicole Buffie

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca