Charges not warranted against officers who drove over homeless woman in park: watchdog

Manitoba’s police watchdog said no charges are recommended against police officers in the death of a homeless woman who was run over at an encampment in a small city park last year.

The incident “was an unfortunate accident,” the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said in a report released Wednesday.

“Therefore, no charges are recommended, and the IIU investigation is now completed and closed.”

The woman was killed in Fort Rouge Park on Sept. 2, 2024. A man who spent years on the street with her told the Free Press the next day that her name was Tammy Bateman.

The Winnipeg Police Service said last year that two officers were returning a man to the camp at 295 River Ave. when the collision happened shortly before 9:30 p.m.

The IIU report noted the woman was lying on a gravel access road when she was hit and was dragged under the vehicle before becoming dislodged. The report noted it was dark at the time, with no artificial light, and that visibility was reduced on that part of the road because of a decline.

“There is no expectation of a pedestrian laying down on the gravelled access road,” the report noted. “The fact that there was no artificial lighting to light up the surrounding areas is another factor.”

Debris from the encampment also played a role in the collision, the report said.

“The debris that was left on the side of the gravelled access road is distracting when it is illuminated by the vehicle’s headlights, because it focuses your attention and reduces your night vision,” the report said.

A homeless man told the IIU the vehicle was moving “a little slower than a walk” and that the woman was lying on her stomach.

The officer driving the vehicle told the IIU in a written statement that the woman was wearing all black clothing. The other officer in the vehicle told the IIU in an interview that they had earlier identified two people in the encampment who had warrants for their arrest.

They arrested a man and took him back to the encampment, where he asked to be dropped off at the entrance so he could go buy cigarettes. The officers decided to enter the park to arrest the other person, the officer told investigators.

The vehicle was going about six kilometres per hour “just before the incident,” the report said. There is no GPS information to show exactly how fast the vehicle was going at the time “because the reading relies on cellular services, along with the vehicle moving at a certain rate of speed and distance to trigger another reading.”

The autopsy determined Bateman died of blunt trauma. A toxicology report noted someone with that much ethanol in their system would be almost unconscious “and potentially in a coma.” She also had methamphetamine in her system.

Winnipeg police said they had no comment on the watchdog’s report.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca