Tough calls in split seconds

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This article was published 05/05/2017 (3308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ConstS. Adam Shewchuk and Riley Clayton stood just metres from the girl holding a handgun to her head, watching as she lifted her white mask to expose her face, her left hand clutching a red rose and a few pieces of paper. They tried to tell her to drop the weapon, but their voices drowned in the din of post-rush-hour traffic at Portage and Main.

The tactical support team officers were the first to respond just before 10 a.m. on July 19, 2016, when 911 calls streamed in from shocked drivers and pedestrians who saw the 17-year-old girl with a gun wandering through traffic in the middle of the city’s busiest intersection in the heart of downtown.

By the time the officers got there, fighting through traffic in their black Ford SUV, sirens and lights blazing with eight other police units soon to follow, “it was clear that she was going through a mental-health crisis at the time,” Shewchuk said.

The case involved a 17-year-old girl with a mental-health condition and traumatic upbringing who has now been sentenced to 18 months of probation for possession of a dangerous weapon — which turned out to be a black-painted BB gun.

It was seen as an intensely public cry for help — one of an increasing number of calls to Winnipeg police that are tied to individuals struggling with severe mental-health concerns.

Although the police service doesn’t keep specific statistics on the number of mental-health-related calls for service it receives, a Winnipeg Police Service spokesman said the police force has seen a “substantial increase” since 2014 in calls that were designated as suicide threats or required an individual to be taken to hospital under the Mental Health Act.

By the end of 2018, all WPS officers are expected to complete enhanced training for dealing with individuals who may have mental-health issues. The training got underway last December in addition to annual training courses police already receive.

“We have seen an increase in suicide threat/mental health apprehension calls, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily a bad thing because it could be as a result of more people coming forward,” WPS spokesman Jay Murray said.

“The stigma surrounding mental illness, I think, has been reduced. Society has done a good job of conversing about this. So it may in fact be that people are more willing to come to us for help.”

Now, after the teen has undergone months of mental-health treatment and the criminal-justice system has rallied around her to get her the help she needs, two of the police officers who managed to resolve the high-pressure situation peacefully are speaking up about what was running through their minds that summer morning during what they described as their most “extreme” call — one that was captured on cellphone cameras and ended up on YouTube.

“You’re playing out a scenario — you’re playing out how this can end, how you can peacefully resolve this? And what’s the worst-case scenario, what’s the best-case scenario? So all this stuff is going through your head when you’re responding to a call. And when we arrived there, that’s exactly what we saw,” Shewchuk said.

“We’re trying to get her to look at us and draw her attention towards us, and the whole time, she showed intent to hurt herself. She never once showed any intent to harm the public. She had this gun to her head.

“So from there, we’re trying to communicate with her, but it’s very loud and there’s traffic everywhere.”

Clayton and Shewchuk, who’ve been with the police service for eight and nine years, respectively, had one goal: de-escalate the situation to get the gun out of the teen’s hand.

“The entire time, I perceived the gun to be real,” Shewchuk said.

“It was very realistic looking,” Clayton agreed.

As other officers attempted to communicate with the teen over a loudspeaker, the tactical team duo decided to try to get closer to her.

Time seemed to slow down as they made a series of split-second decisions. They were about 50 metres away as they kept their eyes on her and backed up toward their vehicle, intending to drive up near her with the protection of the ballistic panels on their SUV. Suddenly, the girl collapsed to the ground, gun still in hand, as if miming she had shot herself in the head.

They tried to get closer in the middle of a “chaotic” scene, Shewchuk said.

Vehicles honked — at least one van drove right through the intersection while police tried to get a handle on the situation — and as Shewchuk and Clayton neared, the girl got up and started to run away.

“If we were to engage and start shooting at her — we are well-trained, but at the same time we are always wondering if a stray round were to miss, where it’s going,” Shewchuk recalled Friday.

“We’re moving in, she starts to get up, we hesitate, and then she turns to run away. So at the time, the gun is down to her side, she’s still posing no threat to us or the public, and then we can’t let her get away with the gun. We can’t let her flee with a firearm, so we continued to pursue her.”

Shewchuk caught up and tackled the girl to the ground, ending the incident in a matter of minutes that felt like much longer to the officers in the middle of the intersection.

“I’m sure we’ve both talked people out of situations before, but certainly nothing that I can say directly compares to this one,” Clayton said. “I’d say this would be the most extreme circumstance like this that I’ve been to, with a firearm to somebody’s head in such a public place.”

Both officers said they’re glad the now-18-year-old woman has received treatment and appears to be doing well.

“We never want to have to go to work and think that we’re going to have to shoot someone. That’s not the goal here. We’re coming here to help people every day. And there are support systems in place for people with mental-health issues, whether they want to proceed to treatment or they don’t, so I think it’s good on her because she ended up going through with all the treatment and continuing to better herself,” Shewchuk said.

The judge and lawyers involved in prosecuting the case have commended police for their handling of the situation — “It could’ve easily resulted in a tragedy and they would’ve had to live with that so I think it’s fair to compliment them for a job well done,” provincial court Judge Murray Thompson said at the teen’s sentencing hearing last week.

The praise came only a few days before different Winnipeg Police Service officers shot a suspect who is now charged with five counts of assault with a weapon and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Josh Pardy, 25, was shot on Monday after he was seen waving a pole with scissors attached to it in a downtown skywalk not far from police headquarters.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay