Man dies after being handcuffed, IIU investigating

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This article was published 20/01/2025 (323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province’s police watchdog is investigating after a man died in a Manitoba hospital following his arrest by the RCMP.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said RCMP in Kamsack, Sask., were told about a missing man in the Madge Lake area at about 7 p.m. Sunday. The lake is in Duck Mountain Provincial Park, near the Manitoba border.

The report suggested the man was not dressed for the weather.

RCMP members from Kamsack and four Manitoba detachments — Swan River, Russell, Roblin and Dauphin — and conservation officers from both provinces went to the area to search for the man. A drone determined he was in the bush, about 200 to 300 metres from officers.

Police travelled through difficult terrain to the location, where they searched the man and placed him in handcuffs “for officer safety” because “there was an indication the male may have a weapon,” the IIU said in a news release Monday.

The man was breathing as he was carried from the bush, but officers checked him again in a police vehicle and determined he no longer had a pulse. Officers gave the man CPR, and emergency crews transported him to a hospital in Swan River. He later died.

A spokesperson for the provincial government said they could not say whether the man was found in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. They quoted the news release, which said “the investigation is ongoing so no further details will be provided at this time.”

The death is the third involving Manitoba RCMP in a matter of days. A woman died in Ashern’s hospital after being arrested in Vogar on Jan. 15. On Jan. 14, 33-year-old father of seven, Cory Wiebe, was fatally shot by a Manitoba RCMP officer outside his family’s home in Dominion City.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca