Officers justified in fatal Portage shooting: police watchdog

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This article was published 24/03/2025 (370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province’s police watchdog has concluded an RCMP officer was justified in the fatal shooting of a teenager who was advancing on an officer with a shard of glass.

Bruce Sychuk, acting civilian director of the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, said in a report released Monday that “the use of lethal force was authorized and justified by law” because of the circumstances the two officers were facing.

Sychuk also concluded there were “no reasonable grounds” to lay charges against the officer.

RCMP said at the time they were confronted by an erratic armed male inside a Portage la Prairie apartment on May 23, 2023, shortly after 1 a.m. The officers had responded to a report a woman said her boyfriend had been trying to kill her.

An officer fired the fatal shot after Tasers failed to immobilize the 18-year-old man, who has not been identified.

IIU investigators interviewed some of the officers who responded and 13 civilians. The officer who fired the shot declined to be interviewed, but gave investigators a prepared statement and his notebook, while a second officer involved agreed to be interviewed.

The IIU said the officer who shot the teen thought he “appeared to be on drugs due to his erratic behaviour.”

When the man was ordered to come down a flight of stairs to be taken into custody, he threw a large garbage bin, which hit the officer in the head and arm.

When the officer raced up the steps, the teen had no weapon, so he fired his Taser at him.

When the Taser failed to incapacitate him, the officer grabbed the man around the midsection and tried to fire the Taser again, but it was knocked out of his hand.

Another officer joined in and the two pulled the man to the floor.

During the melee, an officer spotted the man had a shard of glass in his hand and yelled to his partner that the teen had a knife. The first officer jumped up, pulled his gun and shouted for the other officer to get off the man.

It was at this point, the man advanced on the second officer holding “an edged weapon.” The officer tried to escape down the hall but fell.

The first officer yelled “drop it, or I’ll shoot you,” but when the man kept moving towards the second officer, the officer shot the man.

The man kept advancing towards the officer while his partner fired several more shots before the man fell to the ground.

The officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived and the teen was pronounced dead.

RCMP forensic officers found five spent bullet casings and one loose live round at the scene.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca