The province’s police watchdog says officers were justified in shooting foam rounds and a Taser at a man who was holding a pencil to his neck at a Child and Family Services office in January.
The incident happened at 222 Provencher Blvd. on the late morning of Jan. 3. Police released some details about the incident the next day, when Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth held a news conference and defended his officers’ handling of mental health calls.
CFS staff members alerted police when a 30-year-old man with a history of mental health issues tried to drag his female partner, who is in her 30s, outside.
The Child and Family Services at 222 Provencher Blvd. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
The IIU report released Wednesday said police told the watchdog the man wanted his partner to drive him home and that the woman was asking CFS staff to take her to a shelter. The man grabbed a pencil off the front counter, held it to his neck and threatened to stab himself when heavily armed WPS tactical support team officers arrived.
Police told the IIU an officer fired two rubber-tipped foam rounds in an attempt to subdue the man. The rounds hit the man in his left leg but had no immediate visible effect. Another member of the tactical team fired a Taser at the man, but the probes did not connect with his body, the WPS told the IIU.
The man fell to the ground, grabbed an object that turned out to be a marker and tried to “stab” himself with it, police told the IIU.
“The male then appeared to have a seizure or may have been attempting to harm himself,” police are quoted as saying in the IIU report.
The man was taken to Health Sciences Centre and held under the Mental Health Act. He suffered bruising from the foam rounds but did not require medical treatment, police are quoted as saying.
The IIU said a man calling from a blocked phone number and claiming to be the man contacted investigators a few days later and declined to meet with them. “This has nothing to do with WPS. It was my actions. I acted irrationally,” he said.
The IIU said police tried to de-escalate the situation and prevent the man from harming himself and that the use of force was reasonable and necessary.
Smyth said in January that the man’s partner did not want to go through the criminal process and that he would not be charged. The couple had recently moved to Winnipeg from Ontario, he said.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca