No charges recommended against officer who fatally shot Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation man

Manitoba's police watchdog is not recommending charges against a police officer involved in a shooting that killed a 27-year-old man in Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation nearly a year ago.

On April 20, 2024, RCMP officers from Amaranth — about 140 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, on the west shore of Lake Manitoba — received a call for help from the Manitoba First Nations Police Service in Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said in a report released Tuesday. 

Police said they were called to a home on Ridge Road S. in the First Nation, just south of Amaranth, following reports of an armed man threatening a woman.

Police said the man had a firearm and a machete, according to the police watchdog's report.

One civilian witness and multiple officers who were at the scene told IIU investigators the man had multiple knives wrapped around his forearm with some kind of device.

Witnesses told the unit's investigators that a small group had been drinking at the home, with plans to go out to a bar. The man did not want his girlfriend to go to the bar, and began choking her, witnesses said. 

She was able to get away in a vehicle, but witnesses said they saw the man armed with a machete.

The man wasn't at the home when officers arrived but was found in an outdoor area in the community, the police watchdog's report says.

Police told investigators that the officer who spotted the man chased him into a marsh, where the officer was heard telling the man to drop his weapons. 

One witness officer, who was partnered with the officer involved in the chase, told investigators they had split up during the search. Over the radio, he heard his partner yell "drop the weapons and stop what you're doing," according to the report.

The officer who had chased the man then shot him, the report says.

Police provided first aid, but the 27-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. 

During a nearly year-long investigation, the watchdog agency interviewed nine civilian witnesses and three police officers, its report says.

The officer who shot the man declined to be interviewed by investigators, but provided the unit with his notes.

Those notes indicated that during the chase, the officer saw the man armed with a machete and what he believed to be a hammer. The notes say the officer gave the man "numerous commands," but the man ran toward the officer with the machete in hand, according to the report, at which point the officer fired his weapon to stop the man.

The investigative unit said it hasn't yet received a final autopsy report, but a preliminary report determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the left thorax. 

A toxicology report found methamphetamine in the man's system, the report says.

Although the final autopsy report is not yet available, Bruce M. Sychuk, the IIU's civilian director, decided to publish the unit's findings "to be accountable to the public in a timely manner," the report says.

Sychuk's report says after reviewing the evidence, he determined that the officer's use of deadly force was "authorized and justified by law" and there are no reasonable grounds to support charges against him. 

The report says the investigation is now complete and the investigative unit has closed the case.