Family sues city, six police officers after man’s 2024 death

The family of a man who died in hospital — after police used a Taser and baton on him in an arrest that was caught on camera — is suing the City of Winnipeg and the officers involved.

James Edwin Wood, 35, died at Health Sciences Centre early on Jan. 27, 2024, shortly after he was arrested in the city’s Crestview area.

Wood’s father, Alexander Brian Wood, filed a lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench last week on behalf of the family, naming the city and six unidentified officers — five men and one woman — as defendants.

The court filing alleges the force used to arrest Wood was excessive and either caused or contributed to his death.

“The family is sickened by the treatment the police rendered to their loved one… they’ve seen videotape, and to them it’s sickening,” said the family’s lawyer, Martin Pollock, on Monday.

“They’re concerned that it’s a demonstration of police brutality… Basically, it was a confluence of factors, foreseeable, that led to their son’s death.”

The family is seeking accountability over Wood’s death, Pollock added.

Wood’s cause of death was ruled an anoxic brain injury — caused when the brain is deprived of oxygen — as a complication of cardiac arrest, tied to coronary artery disease.

Cocaine toxicity and the physiological stress of struggling and being restrained also contributed to his death, an autopsy found.

The family’s court papers argue police treated Wood, who was originally from O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation, differently due to his race.

Shortly after midnight that same day, Wood’s girlfriend called for Winnipeg Police Service officers to come to an apartment complex on Fairlane Avenue, between Freemont Bay and Buchanan Boulevard, then-police chief Danny Smyth said the day after the incident.

He described the initial call as a domestic incident involving an intoxicated man and his girlfriend, who was concerned for her three children.

Police arrived shortly before 12:30 a.m. and found Wood had wandered into the complex’s parking lot and collapsed on a snow-covered boulevard.

The lawsuit claims Wood, who was shoeless and lightly clothed, was in distress as he lay on the ground.

“Wood was in a vulnerable state, position of disadvantage and required police assistance and medical attention. Wood lacked capacity for compliance to WPS direct demands. Furthermore, James Wood was unarmed, out-numbered, non-resistant and presented no immediate threat (to the officers,)” the court filing asserts.

Video of the arrest showed Wood flailing as officers, who tried to get him to turn onto his stomach, surrounded him. He did not immediately comply.

One officer used a Taser while two others piled onto him, with their knees on his back, the video showed.

As he kicked his legs, another officer used a baton to strike him on the lower body.

The court filing claims the two officers restraining him physically “induced” him to struggle.

Several officers eventually carried Wood off — appearing limp — from view of the cameras, the video showed.

Smyth said last year the officers had restrained Wood and he became unresponsive as he was being escorted to a police car.

He said officers performed emergency medical aid when they realized he was in distress.

Police called for an ambulance and Wood was later pronounced dead at HSC.

The WPS declined comment on the lawsuit Monday. The service has not yet responded to the allegations in court.

The filing claims the force used by the officers who deployed the Taser and the baton, respectively, was without legal justification and constitutes assault.

The lawsuit further alleges the fact the other officers did not intervene constitutes a dereliction in duty. All the officers, the lawsuit claims, forcibly confined Wood without legal justification.

The court filing notes Wood was overweight, suffered coronary artery disease and had ingested alcohol and cocaine.

The papers argue Wood was physiologically a likely candidate for a cardiac arrest and that his death was reasonably foreseeable, if police were to use force and restrain him.

The lawsuit is seeking $350,000 for Wood’s family members under the Fatal Accidents Act, plus other specified damages, including for funeral costs.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which probes all deaths and serious injuries involving police officers in the province, opened an investigation into Wood’s death. It does not appear to have been completed yet.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca