Man dead after police shooting at Winnipeg apartment, watchdog investigating

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This article was published 01/01/2024 (666 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – Police in Winnipeg say a man who was shot by an officer at an apartment on New Year’s Eve has died.

Police Chief Danny Smyth told reporters at a news conference that two officers responded to a 911 call on Sunday afternoon about a man at the apartment who was armed and was acting erratically.

Smyth says when they arrived at the scene near the University of Manitoba, they encountered multiple people within the suite and were confronted by a 19-year-old man armed with two knives.

Smyth says one of the officers shot the man, and he was taken to hospital in critical condition where he later died.

Police say the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba has been notified and has assumed responsibility for the investigation.

Smyth says the man was known to police from July when they gave him a ride, but he had no other record and may have been a university student.

“We don’t know very much about the male,” Smyth said Monday.

“He has no other record with us, and certainly no criminal record.”

Smyth said he didn’t know if the man lived at the apartment. He said two other people — a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man — were also in the suite.

The 911 call came from someone in the suite, Smyth said. No one else was hurt. He said he didn’t get the sense it was a hostage situation but noted “the caller was quite concerned.”

Smyth said any further information, including the release of the man’s identity, will come from the Independent Investigations Unit.

He didn’t have an answer on how the man was acting erratically or if he’d attacked an officer.

“As soon as there’s a death involved we kind of put the brakes on investigating it — it’s not our jurisdiction to investigate,” he said.

The incident was the second fatal police shooting in less than a week in Winnipeg.

On Thursday, police responded to a hostage-taking at an apartment and shot a 52-year-old man who had an extensive criminal record for violence and weapons offences.

The suspect in that case is also considered a person of interest in the recent homicide of a truck driver, 34-year-old Farah Mohamud of Delta, B.C., who was found dead in the same building.

The chief said Monday that he had no further update on that investigation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 1, 2024.

— By Rob Drinkwater in edmonton