Police 'handled the situation badly,' witness says after driver hits Portage and Main protester
Winnipeg police say they kept out of sight as a form of de-escalation and at demonstration organizers' request
A witness who saw a driver hit a person with his car as he attempted to drive through the Portage and Main intersection during a protest on Wednesday is criticizing the way police handled the situation.
Vivian Ketchum attended the noon hour demonstration, held in response to the death of Tammy Bateman, who was killed on Monday night when Winnipeg police officers driving through Fort Rouge Park hit her with their vehicle. The officers were taking a person back to a homeless encampment along the riverbank in the park at the time.
Around 30 minutes after the protest started at Portage Avenue and Main Street on Wednesday, a driver tried to go through the intersection.
Video posted on Instagram by the cyclist group Critical Mass Winnipeg shows protesters trying to block the vehicle with their bikes, as the driver continues to move forward. Some of the protesters jumped on the vehicle. One man appears to swing punches at the man driving the vehicle, while another opens the passenger-side door.
The driver then accelerates, hitting a person holding a bicycle as the car turns off Main Street onto Portage Avenue East.
"He didn't stop, even though the people had their bikes in front," Ketchum said in an interview.
WATCH | Protesters climb on car driving through Portage and Main intersection:
She wonders why police allowed the driver to get so close.
"They handled the situation badly. They could have blocked off the side street up here, because that's where the cars were coming from."
Winnipeg police released a statement later Wednesday afternoon saying they had placed officers near the intersection but out of sight.
They said they took that approach as a form of de-escalation, and at the request of demonstration organizers.
Vehicle access to the intersection was limited, and most motorists who came near the intersection turned away when they saw the protest, according to police.
Police said in their Wednesday statement they were still investigating the incident, and no arrests had been made at that point.
Ketchum says she feels bad for members of Bateman's family, including her sister Lori, who also attended the protest.
"It was upsetting for us. It must have been horrible for them to see this happen at the event that was meant to support them."
Before the incident involving the car, Lori Bateman told reporters at the demonstration that Tammy was a member of Roseau River Anishinaabe First Nation and had young children.
Protests taxing resources: police
The chair of the Winnipeg Police Board says he was troubled to see what happened.
As the city searches for a new police chief to replace Danny Smyth, Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) said he hopes the next head of the Winnipeg Police Service will seek out community input on how to de-escalate tense situations.
Chambers said he's hoping to see someone who will "build those relationships, strengthen those relationships and ensure that when incidents like this occur, there's an openness and transparency to approaching them and resolving them with the community accordingly."
The police service will deliver a report on Wednesday's demonstration to the board, which will consider whether anything could have been done differently, he said.
Winnipeg police say protests are increasingly taxing on their resources.
"The service constantly assesses its approach with law enforcement partners nationwide for best practices and most appropriate actions," spokesperson Const. Claude Chancy wrote in a statement.
"Public safety remains the highest priority for the general public and attendees of these events."
Police say they are attending a record number of special events, including protests, with 66 events in the second quarter of this year.
According to police statistics going back to 2021, the service attended, on average, 33 special events per quarter.
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