Fatal police shooting at Winnipeg apartment complex justified: Watchdog

Manitoba's police watchdog won't pursue charges against a Winnipeg police officer who fatally shot an armed man at an apartment building on Main Street.

The Independent Investigation Unit said Tuesday it won't authorize charges against the patrol officer in connection with the shooting at a Manitoba Housing building on Main Street last year.

Police shot the man after responding to multiple 911 calls about a man swinging around a knife and banging on suite doors at North Point Douglas Manor around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 2.

He was taken to hospital and later died. 

The IIU's civilian director said there was no reasonable ground for charges against responding officers, and the use of lethal force was justified.

The officer who shot the man (called the subject officer in the IIU report), four other officers and four civilian witnesses provided information to the civilian director, the IIU's full report on the death says.

One civilian witness told the IIU the man had been continuously running water on his suite, causing flooding on other floors. The witness went to the man's suite and found him yelling and screaming on his bed.

The man told two other civilian witnesses that people kept fighting him and that "everyone was out to get him," the report said.

A witness said the man told them he wanted police to take him away, and he wanted to die.

One of the witnesses asked the man whether he was suicidal and if he would like mental health assistance, but he declined.

Man Tasered twice

Eventually 911 was called and dispatchers were told the man was armed with two 20-centimetre knives and was heard saying he used meth and crack.

Three officers who attended the scene — including the officer who shot the man — said they agreed to take the elevator to the fifth floor and then walk up the stairs to the seventh, where the man with the knives was.

An officer with a Taser said the officer who shot the man instructed him to be non-lethal cover while he provided lethal cover.

The officer with the Taser said he saw the man holding a knife and grazing or knocking on a suite door when they got to the seventh floor.

The officer said he told the man to drop the weapon, but the man ignored him. He was moving toward police when the officer deployed the Taser twice.

The officer who fired his gun said in a statement that the man was swinging his knives. The other witness officer said the man was moving toward them in a threatening manner.

The officers said the man was not incapacitated after getting Tasered, and that he continued to move forward. It was then that the officer armed with a gun fired.

The subject officer said the man was about six feet away from him when he shot him.

Forensic investigators found two knives and four spent bullet casings on the scene, as well as evidence of Taser deployment, the IIU report said.

A civilian witness said video corroborated the officers' accounts of the incident.

On the video, the man held two knives while moving toward the police in an "aggressive manner," and he was in very close proximity when he was shot and fell to the ground, the witness said.

Toxicology reports found the man had methamphetamine and amphetamine on his system.

The preliminary cause of death was gunshot wounds to the chest area.