IIU report concludes WPS officer’s actions reasonable in non-lethal 2024 shooting

An armed and barricaded suspect told a Facebook live video stream he “would like to be shot to death” before a Winnipeg police officer shot him with three non-lethal beanbag rounds.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, a civilian police watchdog, on Wednesday released its final report into the Feb. 26, 2024 incident on Worthington Avenue in St. Vital.

The IIU concluded in September 2024 the officer’s actions were reasonable, but the 11-page report was on hold until the suspect’s charges were dealt with in court.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, the outcome of this incident could have ended in a much more serious manner,” then-IIU civilian director Roxanne Gagné wrote. She did not recommend criminal charges against the officer.

Police went to the home, which backs onto Victor Mager School, to arrest the man on warrants that involved gun offences, the report said.

The man, who refused to go outside, fired a pellet gun at a rear bedroom window from inside the house, which led police — who did not know whether it was a firearm or a pellet gun — to call for a lockdown at the elementary school.

The report said the man appeared to fire the weapon during the livestream before saying, “We are gonna go shooting.”

After an officer was heard telling him he shouldn’t say things like that to police, the man said: “I would like to be shot to death.”

He was seen holding a handgun before the video concluded with him leaving the room. By then, the room had filled with smoke from a fire that began when he dropped a lit cigarette into a garbage can.

The report said the man climbed out a window and onto the roof of an extension when a tactical support team officer shot him in the upper torso with three rounds from a “less than lethal” beanbag gun.

Officers told the IIU the man appeared to have an object in his pocket, kept his hands close to his body and appeared to be trying to escape after being ordered to lay down and show his hands.

A police use-of-force report provided to the IIU said the officer opened fire due to the possibility the man might still have been armed with a gun.

Earlier in the standoff, police flew a camera-equipped drone into the house after using an armoured vehicle to force the front door open.

The man also phoned his cousin, a police officer who was off duty, and told him he “would not go down without a fight” and he “would shoot,” the IIU report said. The cousin relayed the information to police after advising the man to put down the gun and give himself up.

The man, who suffered large bruises on his chest, was arrested and taken to Health Sciences Centre for treatment.

Two days later, he told the IIU he was waiting for his girlfriend to help him take medication for a mental illness when police arrived. He said he didn’t aim the gas-powered pellet gun at police.

He told the IIU he “had his hands up with nowhere to go” before he was shot.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca