Inquest recommends Winnipeg police consider more options for less lethal weapons after man fatally shot

WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.

The judge who led an inquest into the death of a man shot by an officer in 2020, after police failed to subdue him with a stun gun, recommends Winnipeg police look at best practices for those kinds of less lethal weapons — and consider giving intermediate weapons reserved for its tactical response team, like sock guns, to other officers.

Police were responding to a 911 call in the early morning of March 10, 2020, when they fatally shot Adriel Shworob, said provincial court Judge Julie Frederickson's report on the inquest into his death.

The call was made as Shworob brutally attacked his father, Kim Shworob, and his father's partner, Vivian Ellis, likely while in the throes of a mental health crisis and/or under the influence of magic mushrooms.

"As Kim said, the person who attacked him and Vivian was not the Adriel he knew and loved," Frederickson's report said. 

The inquest heard police tried using a stun gun on Shworob several times before shooting him, but it had no effect.

Frederickson called the incident "shocking and tragic" in the report, where she recommended the Winnipeg Police Service undertake a study of less lethal weapons used by other police forces across Canada to determine whether the current type and allocation of its intermediate weapons, like batons and pepper spray, reflect best practices.

The judge also recommended considering giving the intermediate weapons its tactical response team has — sock guns and soft foam bullets — to general patrol officers.

Shworob was described as "a much-loved son and brother" who was "thoughtful and cared deeply about others and animals."

The report said he had sold his home and bought a plane ticket to Bali, where he planned to move and open a yoga school, but ended up moving in with his father temporarily when the COVID-19 pandemic caused his plane ticket to get cancelled.

An inquest is required by law in Manitoba when a person dies as a result of use of force by police acting in their course of duty.

Shworob was staying with his father and Ellis when he entered their bedroom around 4:30 the morning of the incident and started attacking his father while holding a pair of scissors. The recording of Ellis's 911 call reflected "the sheer terror of what was unfolding," the judge wrote.

While the couple were able to get the scissors from him, Shworob went downstairs and got a knife before returning to the bedroom and stabbing Ellis, the report said.

'Sheer terror'

As the couple tried to run from the house, Shworob grabbed his father from behind and pushed him down before getting on top of him and stabbing him repeatedly. 

When officers arrived, Shworob was on top of his father, who was lying in the street in only a housecoat, surrounded by blood.

Shworob didn't respond to police commands to stop, and police weren't able to physically get him off — one testified he was like a vacuum, getting "sucked back" onto his father each time officers moved him.

Officers then tried using a stun gun several times, after noticing Shworob's knife.

While those probes connected, they were ineffective — which the report said can happen when a person is "extremely goal-oriented" and "completely unphased" by attempts to stop them.

As Shworob continued attacking his father, one of the officers said she pleaded with Shworob to get off before concluding "she had no choice but to use her firearm" and shooting him in the back, the report said. He was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Shworob's father was left with a stab wound to the right eye and stabs or cuts around his left eye and in several other places on his face, neck, arms and legs. He also had broken teeth and ribs, the report said.

New training

Judge Frederickson said situations like the one officers faced that morning "realistically leave them without a viable intermediate weapon option," which is why the officer who shot Shworob felt she "had no other choice."

The judge also said officers' initial actions were restrained. While they would have been justified in using a less lethal weapon when they saw Shworob attacking his father, and a gun when they saw he had a knife, they "did not immediately jump to these options."

She also said while it's not recommended that officers to go "hands on" when a weapon like a knife is involved, they did anyway to try to resolve things without using more serious force.

Police have since started getting trauma-based first aid training and have also had a chest seal added to their standard first aid kit, which would have been appropriate to use on Shworob if it had been available.

The inquest heard Shworob suffered from "undiagnosed mental health concerns" and had committed an act of self-harm in the weeks before his death.

He was also involved in an incident about a decade earlier in which he had stabbed someone while in psychosis, and underwent treatment for six months, the report said. His family doctor and parents had also expressed concern to him about his use of psilocybin.

A toxicology report done after his death did not detect any drugs in Shworob's system, though the report said the laboratory "did not have a specific method for the confirmation of psilocin and/or psilocybin, which are the compounds in magic mushrooms."