Manitoba’s police watchdog says it won’t recommend charges against Winnipeg police officers after a man died following his arrest last summer.
The man was taken to hospital after he became unresponsive during his arrest last August and died there, according to the Independent Investigation of Manitoba.
In a report on its investigation released Thursday, the IIU — which investigates all serious incidents involving police in Manitoba — said the man’s cause of death was determined to be acute methamphetamine toxicity.
The report says on the afternoon of Aug. 7, 2023, police were called to Kinbrace Bay and McLeod Avenue, in northeast Winnipeg, after multiple 911 reports about a man who was holding a large knife, running in traffic and acting erratically.
Witnesses gave police a description of the man, and said he had dropped the knife and gone to a home on Oakland Avenue.
Officers later found the man at that home and took him into custody, the IIU report says.
The man initially co-operated with officers and was put into the back of a police car, according to the police watchdog’s report.
However, he “appeared sweaty and was clenching his jaw,” and told police he had been doing meth throughout the night, the report says.
He also “exhibited signs of bizarre behaviour,” so the officers called for medical assistance, according to the investigative unit.
While waiting for paramedics to arrive, the man became extremely agitated and started kicking the window of the police car and the door, the release said.
Meanwhile, the man’s family members, who were outside the home near the police vehicle, became “very emotionally escalated,” IIU civilian director Roxanne Gagné wrote in her report, so police moved their vehicle a few blocks away to wait for paramedics to arrive.
However, the man became unresponsive, and officers took him out of the car’s back seat and put him on the ground.
Fire-paramedics then arrived. Noting he was unresponsive, they immediately started CPR.
The man was taken to Health Sciences Centre in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead.
‘Tragic set of circumstances’
The Winnipeg Police Service notified the Independent Investigation Unit about the man’s death the same day, the IIU report says.
The unit began an investigation, which included interviewing several witnesses in the neighbourhood. Investigators also got statements from several police officers involved, as well as from firefighters and paramedics who responded.
They also reviewed recordings of 911 calls, police officers’ notes, a forensic identification services report and photographs of the man’s autopsy.
Gagné wrote in her report there was no evidence that force was used on the man at the house or while waiting for paramedics to arrive and that he was co-operative and apologetic while being arrested.
The man became unconscious while in the back seat of the vehicle and there was “no evidence of any physical trauma” contributing to his death, Gagné wrote.
Her report said she was satisfied the officers’ actions were reasonable, and that officers fulfilled their duties by calling for medical assistance.
While calling it “a tragic set of circumstances,” the civilian director concluded no charges should be recommended against any of the officers involved in the incident, and the investigation is now considered closed.