More info needed about Sunday’s fatal Winnipeg police shooting to decide if lethal force justified: experts

WARNING: This story details violent events surrounding a fatal police shooting.

The Winnipeg Police Service is being publicly scrutinized after a video of an officer opening fire at a man was widely shared, but former Ontario police watchdog directors and a former top cop say it’s hard to know if the use of force is justified based on the 25-second clip alone.

Winnipeg police said officers were at the Unicity Shopping Centre carrying out a project as part of the retail theft initiative on Sunday afternoon, according to a news release sent later on Sunday evening. 

At around 5:09 p.m., officers voiced over their portable radios that one of them had been stabbed in the throat by a man, and the suspect had been shot, the release said.

Police performed life-saving measures on the man before he was transported to Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre, where he later died. 

“Our officers do not come to work to take a life. They come to work to serve and protect the community,” acting police chief Art Stannard said at a news conference late Sunday evening.

It is still unclear what led to the stabbing or how it escalated into the shooting, but video circulating on social media shows two police officers drawing their guns and pointing at a man who is standing just outside a bus shelter in the mall’s parking lot. 

The video doesn’t capture the whole incident, but officers are heard yelling “put it down” and “drop it” as the man walks toward them, and seconds later, they discharge their firearms.

Howard Morton, who served as the director of Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, from 1992 to 1995, said police officers are entitled to defend themselves and other members of the public from imminent harm, but the use of force is limited to what’s strictly necessary, and from the video it is unclear if the situation meets the bar.

“There simply is not enough information at this point in time to determine that,” he said.

Morton said the events that unfolded in the video suggest officers acted “reasonably” in response to the circumstances.

Officers attempted to de-escalate the situation by asking the man to drop what could have been a weapon, but as it is shown in the video, the man approached the officers instead, presenting a “risk of imminent harm” to them.

“Another officer having been stabbed, these officers obviously had a justifiable belief that if they don’t do something, this individual is going to come towards them and possibly stab one of them,” he said. “It seems they would have no other choice.”

WATCH: Raw video of Winnipeg police fatally shooting man near Unicity Shopping Centre:

But more evidence, included what happened between the stabbing and the shooting, is needed to understand if the use of lethal force was justified, he says.

“The worst thing you can do is jump to conclusions based on what might be one-100th of the evidence.”

Use of gun instead of Taser

Kash Heed, former chief of the West Vancouver Police Department, said officers have to assess the use of deadly force based on the actions of the suspect at the time of their encounter and not on what has previously transpired.

“There could have been some de-escalation … less lethal use of force,” Heed said, but officers also need to act according to what’s available to them when containing a dynamic situation.

Heed said officers could have been in the line of duty wearing plain clothes, restricting access to a Taser, pepper spray or short gun if they were wearing their uniform belts.

“Police officers have to adapt and use what he or she have been trained to use again to protect their lives and the lives of other individuals.” 

However, Ian Scott, another former director of Ontario’s police watchdog, said that even if officers have a Taser, the use of it applies to neutralizing an individual who doesn’t represent an imminent threat to safety.

“The ground rules change when a person with an edged weapon is moving towards officers, particularly with prior knowledge of the use of that weapon on another officer,” he said.

Scott said investigators will also have to determine what was in the minds of the officers before they pulled the trigger, whether they witnessed the stabbing personally or if they received communications on it because “that would clearly ratchet up their sense of imminent danger as this fellow with a knife approached them.”

A tragedy for everyone

Premier Wab Kinew and Mayor Scott Gillingham offered condolences to the family impacted by Sunday’s fatal shooting.

Winnipeg police said the officer was treated for his injuries on Sunday and remains in stable condition. 

Meanwhile, Manitoba’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Unit (IIU), has since taken over the investigation, assigning a team of investigators and a civilian monitor that will be appointed by the Manitoba Police Commission.

The IIU said no further details will be released on the shooting at this time, including how many bullets were fired at the man on Sunday. But at least nine are heard on the video circulating widely on social media. 

WATCH | Shooting death of man by Winnipeg police being investigated:

Heed said police officers are trained to “double tap,” which means reassessing twice before shooting to contain a person so they are no longer a threat. 

“Ten shots were not necessarily needed to immobilize the suspect,” he said. “But it appears the officers were caught into this unfortunate part of the syndrome where they rapidly fired.” 

Scott said that while the public has benefited from the video being shared widely on social media, he said people should be cautious and not rush to judgment as bystanders often don’t turn their cameras on until they see an incident in high relief. 

“It does require a complete investigation before a decision is made,” he said, and those investigations are narrowed down to determine whether the officers’ conduct was criminal or not. 

“It’s a great tragedy for everyone involved,” Scott said.