Family upset after officer cleared in fatal shooting

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This article was published 02/12/2021 (1380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The police watchdog’s decision not to lay criminal charges against a police officer who fatally shot a 22-year-old man last year is painful for the young father’s family, and for Indigenous communities who have had too many of their own die at the hands of police, two First Nations chiefs said Thursday.

Stewart Andrews, a member of God’s Lake First Nation in northern Manitoba, was fatally shot by a Winnipeg Police Service officer on April 18, 2020. The officer won’t face any charges because there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba announced Thursday.

The police watchdog met with members of Andrews’ family and the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak to discuss its findings earlier this week. That was the first time, MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee said, the young man’s family learned he had been shot five times.

“This meeting was really difficult, it was very painful, and it reminds us there needs to be change in the process of the IIU. There has to be a better way in how these investigations are handled… there needs to be the involvement of Indigenous oversight to make it a thorough and fair process,” Settee said.

After investigating the shooting and seeking a Crown opinion on the case, the IIU determined a criminal charge wouldn’t hold up in court, and the investigation was closed.

Settee and God’s Lake First Nation Chief Hubert Watts said they believe the shooting was an example of excessive force, and that police could have used non-lethal methods. The officer, whose name hasn’t been released, shot Andrews from about seven feet away, according to the notes they provided to the IIU.

Police officers and the canine unit had responded to a report of a robbery in the Maples. A resident said he was taking the garbage out along Adsum Drive around 4 a.m. when two males confronted him and demanded cash. According to the report, one of the men had a gun and the other had a shovel. The resident got away and called police, but not before he was hit with the shovel. When officers arrived, they saw two males walking in the area and believed they were the suspects.

The man later identified as Andrews had a three-foot metal pole that he swung like a baseball bat, had an “angrily tense expression on his face, and appeared to be wanting to confront and fight officers,” the officer who fired the shots wrote in notes about the incident.

The officer provided notes and a statement to the IIU but declined to be interviewed by investigators. A canine unit officer with 12 years of experience who witnessed the shooting told the IIU he didn’t send in the police dog because he thought Andrews would kill it with the metal bar.

“It is very disheartening and devastating to think that a police dog is more valuable than an Indigenous man. We stand in support of the Andrews family and other families where the lives of Indigenous people were taken too soon as a result of police violence,” Settee said.

There were other means of restraint in this case, Chief Watt said. He said Andrews had a two-year-old son. His death has taken a toll on the community, Watt said.

“Things have to change,” he said.

MKO is working with the provincial justice department on a working group to help improve police oversight, court processes and the ways in which the criminal justice system discriminates against Indigenous people.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca