Attempted carjacking of off-duty officer foiled because thief couldn't drive stick shift, Winnipeg police say

A Winnipeg man has been arrested after police say he tried to carjack an off-duty officer but couldn't take off in the vehicle because he didn't know how to drive a stick shift.

A manual transmission is "probably one of the best theft deterrent systems a vehicle can have," Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Claude Chancy said at a Wednesday news conference.

The officer involved in the attack was left with minor upper-body injuries from the afternoon incident, where a 27-year-old man assaulted and threatened to kill him, Chancy said.

The officer was driving on Smith Street, not far from the downtown Winnipeg police headquarters, around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday when a man flagged him down and presented himself "as a person in distress."

Chancy said the man then opened the driver's-side door of the officer's vehicle and started physically assaulting him in an unprovoked attack. The man continued assaulting him and tried to pull the victim from the vehicle, even as he identified himself as an off-duty police officer.

When the officer got out of the vehicle, the attacker got into the driver's seat and tried to drive away. When he couldn't do that, he tried to run — but three other off-duty officers who happened to be in the area were able to stop and handcuff the man, who Chancy said is over six feet tall and weighs more than 260 pounds.

"We're not dealing with a small man here, so this was — they had their hands full," he said, adding he wanted to commend the several witnesses who called for help.

Police later realized the attacker had been brought into custody on "probation-related warrants" and released about 20 minutes before the attempted carjacking, but Chancy said it's believed the attack was random and not related to his previous time in custody.

Though carjackings are more common at night, he said the incident shows they can happen any time.

"Carjackings are a crime of opportunity," Chancy said. "Of course, it's easier at nighttime where you're not seen, but we've had a lot of instances where carjackings were done and perpetrated in the middle of the day."

The man was detained in custody and charged with robbery, assaulting a peace officer, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, and failing to comply with a probation order.