No charges for off-duty ‘unsteady’ Winnipeg police officers who fought with drunk man

The province’s police oversight agency has declined to recommend charges against two off-duty Winnipeg Police Service officers who got into physical altercations with a man at a Main Street bar, after they took part in a “restorative justice approach” to address their actions.

The incident at the Green Brier Inn early on Dec. 14, 2023 was reported first to city police, then the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which began a lengthy probe into the circumstances.

The unit’s acting director, Bruce Sychuk, released his final report on the investigation Friday. He completed the report in mid-February.

Sychuk said the two officers involved “agreed to actively participate in a restorative justice approach” to address their actions.

The specifics of that approach are not detailed in the report.

“The civilian director is satisfied with their restorative efforts as a meaningful consequence for this incident,” said Sychuk.

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

The man had difficulty recollecting the incident compared to the independent evidence — surveillance footage — which made it difficult to assess the situation against the standard needed to lay charges, wrote Sychuk, a long-time Crown prosecutor. The man was drunk at the time.

“A trauma informed approach must be taken when assessing possible charges in relation to this incident and (the man’s) ability to recall the incident,” he said.

The man called the city police non-emergency line just before 2 a.m., advising he had been assaulted by two men he believed were off-duty cops at the Green Brier Inn.

On-duty Winnipeg police officers met with the man before his report was handed over to the IIU.

Surveillance footage reviewed by the IIU showed the man got into some kind of verbal dispute with the officers inside the bar, which escalated to two physical altercations. The officers appeared unsteady on their feet in the footage, as did the man.

Footage from approximately 12:40 a.m. appeared to show the first male officer trying to engage in “friendly conversation” with the man, while a female officer also approached him in a “friendly manner,” while the man appeared to say something to a second male officer near the bar’s front doors, said the report.

The female officer then grabbed at the man and gestured toward the outside of the bar, before he pushed her hands off his body. The second male officer then approached the man near the front door, kicked him in the shin and shoved him outside, the footage showed.

The man then went back inside, but minutes later, surveillance footage showed the two male off-duty officers escorting him back out the doors of the bar, holding him by the arms.

Footage from a camera on Main Street showed the officers taking the man down to the sidewalk, as the second officer kicked the man once in the lower back or butt as he laid on the ground.

The man got off the ground and they exchanged words, while the first male officer flipped his middle finger at the man, who eventually left on his bicycle.

As many as 21 other off-duty police officers were also at the bar at the time and some witnessed parts of the incidents, what led up to the altercations or the aftermath, the report indicates.

The man later met with IIU investigators and gave them his recollection of the incident, but it did not entirely match up with the surveillance footage, wrote Sychuk.

He told investigators he had been drinking and playing VLTs at an area legion hall, while off-duty police officers had a party on the hall’s second floor.

He then went to the Green Brier after the legion closed and kept drinking for about an hour, before he got into a verbal disagreement with a table of around 15-20 off-duty officers, but thought nothing more of it after one of them told him to keep walking, he told investigators.

Later, he claimed, he got grabbed by two male officers, pushed from the bar, dragged into traffic on Main Street and kicked by the officers, including in the head. He also said the officers jumped on top of him while he was laying on the sidewalk and kicked and punched him.

The surveillance tape does not entirely line up with his account, said Sychuk, particularly his claim he was dragged onto the street.

The man told investigators he had between seven and 14 beers and had smoked cannabis, though he did not think he was particularly intoxicated.

He did not go for medical assistance, but told the IIU he thought he had broken some ribs. Photos showed him with bruising near his left eye and a scrape on his face.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca