‘Fortunate that nobody was seriously injured’

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This article was published 13/04/2025 (349 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

West End residents were shaken and concerned after Winnipeg police officers fired gunshots at a stolen pickup truck which drove toward them before it crashed into a house and sparked a blaze Friday night.

Children were riding their bikes or playing in front yards on Home Street, between Portage and St. Matthews avenues, when officers — standing outside their SUV — opened fire on the truck at about 6 p.m.

No human injuries were reported in the incident, after which residents expressed fears an innocent person could have been hurt by the truck, which mounted a boulevard, or police gunfire.

Two retired veteran police officers, who are based in B.C., said police in Canada are trained to consider what is in the background when deciding whether to shoot, in case they miss their target.

“When (investigators) look at the totality, sort of the constellation of evidence and information, part of it will be not just were they allowed to shoot — was that reasonable — it will be could there have been another option possibly available to them, in considering all other circumstances, where maybe there was potentially less danger to bystanders,” said Bruce Pitt-Payne, a former RCMP major crime investigator who is now an investigative consultant.

Police may lawfully use firearms as force if it was reasonable, necessary and proportionate to the circumstances, he said.

“Part of a fulsome investigation would be whether the use of force was reasonable in the context of this specific neighbourhood at that specific time,” Pitt-Payne said.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba is investigating the officers’ actions and whether they were justified.

Kash Heed, a former West Vancouver police chief and B.C. solicitor general, said officers generally make assessments as they “thin slice” what is happening in a dynamic situation.

“I know the community may think it’s difficult to do that assessment, but, actually, that’s all part of the focus of your aim is to see what’s in the background,” he said. “The community has a right to be concerned with the number of shots that were fired, how the shots were fired.

“We’re fortunate here that nobody was seriously injured, but the threat to the community was also there, not only from the maneuvering of the suspect vehicle, but certainly from the actions police chose to take.”

The officers will be required to justify their use of lethal force, Heed said.

The Winnipeg Police Service said officers saw a Ford F250, which was reported stolen, and attempted to stop it while the driver headed north in the 300 block of Home Street.

The truck reversed into a civilian’s car before driving toward the officers, police said.

Video on social media showed two officers firing shots while the truck approached and swerved around them and their SUV, which was angled to block the street. Children, who were in a yard nearby, ran to a house as police fired.

The audio suggested at least 10 shots were fired.

A short time later, the fleeing driver crashed into different police cruiser, lost control and collided with a house in the 500 block of Home, police said.

The collision sparked a fire that spread to a large fuel tank, located in the bed of the truck, that exploded, police said.

The United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg union said a gas line was severed, leaking a dangerous amount of natural gas, before the supply was shut off by crews.

A cat was found dead after the house fire was extinguished, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said.

Police said the truck’s driver — a 48-year-old man — and passenger — a 29-year-old woman — fled on foot but were arrested nearby.

After reviewing the video, Heed was surprised by the number of shots that were fired.

“Police don’t use deadly force to disable a vehicle. The deadly force is to neutralize the threat,” Heed said. “It’s very difficult to shoot a moving target, and that’s why I’m surprised (by) the number.”

Until the IIU investigation is complete, it is premature to make a judgment based on the video, Pitt-Payne said.

“Even if it were an extremely comprehensive video from beginning to end with no image problems or difficulty seeing or hearing everything, we still don’t know what was in the mind of those officers… and that is an extremely important criteria that has to be sought,” he said.

At the scene Saturday, two boys told the Free Press they witnessed the shooting.

“You could probably have seen my skin hairs pop out. That’s how much I was shivering,” one nine-year-old said.

The boy recalled throwing his bike on a neighbour’s lawn and running inside a home with his friends when he saw an officer pull out a gun.

One woman who lives on the street said it was “irresponsible” of officers to be firing shots in such close vicinity to children.

“It was pretty chaotic,” she said.

Area resident Patrick Broughton said the incident sparked safety concerns.

“There’s kids every day, every evening. It’s not rare to see 10, 12 kids on their bikes, just going up and down here,” he said.

The IIU, a civilian oversight agency, is responsible for probing all serious incidents involving on and off-duty officers.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca