Winnipeg police officers accused of causing man’s death during arrest: lawsuit
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The common-law wife of a man who died following his forceful arrest by Winnipeg police two years ago is suing the municipal government and the officers who took him into custody.
Elias Whitehead, 37, was pronounced dead in a city hospital on Oct. 15, 2023, sometime after Winnipeg Police Service officers were called to Broadway and Sherbrook Street just before 11 p.m. that night over a report of a man — Whitehead — in distress, running into traffic.
Officers took him into custody and he went into medical distress, police said at the time. The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which probes serious injuries and deaths involving police, said he began to have trouble breathing during the arrest.
Whitehead’s common-law wife, Jody Beardy, filed a lawsuit in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench on Friday, alleging the arresting officers caused Whitehead’s death.
The court filing claims Whitehead, with his hands empty and behind his back, was compliant as one of the officers escorted him to a police cruiser.
The plaintiff hasn’t identified the officers; they’re referred to as “Pat Doe” and “Miki Doe” in the court papers.
“Upon reaching a cruiser car, Pat Doe, with intent and power slammed Elias against the WPS vehicle and with Miki Doe, grabbed Elias, threw him to the ground and repeatedly punched and kneed him. Elias was kneeled on by Pat Doe,” alleges the court filing.
“As a result of the administration of force by Pat Doe and Miki Doe, Elias sustained a fatal injury.”
Witnesses who saw and filmed part of the arrest told the Free Press in October 2023 they saw officers forcefully take Whitehead to the ground, struggling with him as he was lying face down, and punching and kicking him.
Beardy’s lawyer, Martin Pollock, said Whitehead’s family is seeking accountability from police, describing Whitehead as “helpless” at the time of the arrest.
“It’s appalling, the extent of the force, and the family pleads that it’s disproportionate — it’s excessive,” said Pollock.
The court filing claims that a “defenceless” Whitehead was compliant, unarmed, not aggressive and presented no threat to the officers.
The officers “induced Elias to struggle,” the court papers allege, and applied unnecessary physical force without justification.
No one in the group of witnesses saw the moments leading up to the arrest, they told the Free Press at the time.
One witness recorded a one-minute video showing two officers struggling with Whitehead lying face-down on Broadway on the east side of Sherbrook.
The man could be seen moving while he was pinned to the ground. He was punched and kneed by officers during the incident.
Additional police cars arrived, blocking the view of the camera.
A short time later, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service members checked the man’s pulse and performed chest compressions.
He was restrained and didn’t appear to be moving on the ground before paramedics took him to hospital in an ambulance, said the witness.
Whitehead was pronounced dead in hospital. His specific cause of death, if one was determined, is not included in the court filings.
The lawsuit claims the second officer was derelict in their duty by not intervening in the first officer’s use of force.
Whitehead, the court papers claim, was physiologically susceptible to excessive stimulation.
“It was reasonably foreseeable that police administration of excessive force and physical restraint, inducing struggle and agitation would endanger his life,” claims the lawsuit.
The court papers claim the officers treated Whitehead differently due to his race. Whitehead was from Webequie First Nation, a fly-in community in northern Ontario, but was in the city training as a heavy equipment operator.
Beardy, his partner, is from Tataskweyak Cree Nation in Manitoba’s north.
The Winnipeg Police Service has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court. The IIU’s probe in Whitehead’s death is still ongoing.
The lawsuit is seeking $140,000 in damages for the family, along with funeral-related costs and other damages.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
Every piece of reporting Erik 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.
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