Man, 59, fatally shot by Winnipeg police following mental health call

A 59-year-old man is dead after he was shot by Winnipeg police on Tuesday.

The fatal shooting happened at a Winnipeg home after officers attempted to take the man to hospital for a "non-voluntary physician examination" under the province's Mental Health Act, the Winnipeg Police Service said Wednesday.

Police received the order to apprehend him last Thursday and made several unsuccessful attempts to apprehend him in the following days, they said at a news conference about the shooting.

At 7:26 a.m. Tuesday, officers went to a home on Magnus Avenue, where the man answered the door. He was "exhibiting agitated behaviour" while holding a crowbar, police said.

When officers went up to the man, he sprayed them with a fire extinguisher and fled inside the home, locking himself in, they said.

Police then called the tactical support team. Those officers tried to speak with the man, but were unsuccessful, police said.

Officers went into the home and continued to try to speak with the man, who had barricaded himself inside a bedroom on the second floor, they said.

The man again sprayed the officers with a fire extinguisher.

"After some time" he left the bedroom and confronted officers with a "large edged weapon," the news release said.

That's when officers shot the man, police said.

They gave the man emergency medical care, including chest seals and a tourniquet. He was taken to the Health Sciences Centre in critical condition and died.

Sarah Coates, who lives a few houses down from the home where the man was shot, said she remembers police being at the house last week.

"I remember them telling him that 'all we want to do is just talk to you,'" she told CBC News.

"He refused, he kept refusing, and he wouldn't let them in."

She said police had told her to stay inside.

"It's just a shock to everybody," said Coates.

Manitoba's police watchdog, the Independent Investigation Unit, is investigating the death. Anyone with information about the death is asked to call the IIU at 1-844-667-6060.

In a news release, the IIU said it will ask the Manitoba Police Commission to appoint a civilian monitor. Under provincial legislation, a civilian is tapped to monitor the progress of IIU investigations when police officer actions could have resulted in a person's death.

Mental health calls increasing

Police don't want to be involved in these types of incidents, acting police chief Art Stannard said at a Wednesday's new conference at police headquarters

"It is tragic, whenever a police interaction results in a death," said Stannard.

"Police officers take an oath to protect life, and they take that oath very seriously," he said. "They want to help people."

The number of mental health calls Winnipeg police have to attend to is rising, Stannard said, with violence or weapons often involved.

Community engagement Supt. Bonnie Emerson said there were more than 2,000 calls last year that were related to the province's Mental Health Act. That's about six calls a day, she said.

Police were required to detain more than 1,100 people in 2023 under the act, Emerson said.

"We are the only ones mandated to do this, and we cannot do this alone," she said at the news conference.

"Officers are human beings. They are required to make life and death decisions in high-stress situations."

Manitoba's Mental Health Act lays out how police should act when interacting with people who have a mental health issue, Emerson said.

Section 12 of the act authorizes police to take people into custody and then bring them in for a physician examination. 

There are forms under that section that explain under what circumstances police can take people into custody under the act.

This case fell under Form 2, Stannard said — when a justice authorizes an order for police to take a person into custody for an involuntary examination. Usually, a family member or someone concerned about the person's mental well-being will apply for the order, Stannard said.

Police Chief Danny Smyth held a news conference Monday about an armed-and-barricaded standoff that left three police officers shot. He also spoke about three incidents over the weekend that involved police and mental health calls.

Police did 21,000 well-being checks last year — an average of 58 well-being checks per day, up four per cent from 2022 and 16 per cent more than the five-year average, Emerson said. It's not clear how many involved mental health.

In a Wednesday post on the online publishing platform Substack, Smyth said Winnipeg police officers go through "comprehensive" mental health training, including an overview of the Mental Health Act, de-escalation training, mental health awareness courses and more.

He said when using force, officers are also trained to use "empathy, active listening, and effective communication to de-escalate potentially volatile situations, with a focus on maintaining safety and minimizing the use of force."

Despite that, "things don't always end well," he wrote.

"Sometimes officers are presented with a threat that compels them to make a split-second decision while under stress to protect themselves or to protect others — and sometimes that requires the use of lethal force," he wrote in the post.

"No one wants that."