U of M chapel packed with mourners for student fatally shot by police

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This article was published 12/01/2024 (602 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

About 150 students and friends of a man affectionately known as “Zigi-Pink,” crowded into the University of Manitoba chapel Friday to honour the 19-year-old and call for justice.

Afolabi Stephen Opaso, a Nigerian who was studying economics, was shot and killed by city police officers who had responded to a well-being call at a University Crescent apartment on New Year’s Eve.

The Winnipeg Police Service has said he was wielding two knives when he confronted officers.

At the packed chapel Friday evening, some vigil attendees carried candles in his memory. Speakers read from scripture, passed on condolences to his family, who remain in Nigeria and couldn’t attend, and shared memories of his time in Canada.

“When we first met Zigi, his intro line was ‘My name is Zigi, the ladies call me ‘Pink,’” Nathan Otekalu-Aje, a close friend, joked.

When Opaso came to Canada, he lived with fellow U of M students Otekalu-Aje and Hamza Liman. The pair said Opaso juggled two jobs to pay his bills and high international student tuition, as well as help his family back in Africa.

“Everyone claims that there’s resources and there’s everything provided for (international students), but when you try to reach those resources, you realize you have to pay bills to get them. That is very false,” Liman said.

He said Opaso didn’t deserve to die because of his struggle with mental health.

“(A police officer’s) child could also be on the other side of a gun. If your child needs help… are you going to help your child, or are you just going to give him the full extent of force you can possibly give?” he said.

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“He’s loved, he’s family, he’s not someone who’s far off, so for this to happen, this is so crazy,” Otekalu-Aje said. “It’s still shocking, it’s still hard to process.”

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which probes such cases involving police, has asked the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team to conduct the investigation. One of the officers involved is a close relative of a Manitoba Justice employee, and the IIU said it wants to avoid the potential for any perceived conflict of interest.

The lawyer for Opaso’s parents, who live in Nigeria, said they hope for an impartial report into the shooting.

“Our hope is that justice will be served, and there will be some accountability and truth,” Jean-René Dominique Kwilu said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.