Patient attacks paramedic and a driver on the highway with shears, RCMP say
Man faces 7 charges after incident on Highway 20, north of Winnipegosis
A 38-year-old male patient who was being transported by ambulance injured a paramedic and the driver of another vehicle on the highway with a pair of shears, according to police.
The man was being driven from Minegoziibe Anishinabe (formerly Pine Creek First Nation) in Camperville, about 420 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, to a hospital Monday morning when Winnipegosis RCMP got a call around 10:45 a.m. for assistance from emergency medical services.
One of the paramedics reported being assaulted with the shears in the back of the ambulance, the RCMP said in a media release on Tuesday. The ambulance was heading to the hospital in Dauphin, about 120 kilometres south of Camperville.
An officer met the ambulance on Highway 20 north of Winnipegosis, which is roughly the halfway point between Camperville and Dauphin.
When the officer opened the back of the ambulance, the man still had the shears and did not comply with repeated requests to drop them, the RCMP said.
A conducted energy weapon (CEW) was used when the man "aggressively approached the officer with the shear(s)," according to the release, but it "had no effect."
The man then started walking northbound on Highway 20.
That is when police said vehicles stopped, with a female exiting the passenger side of one of the vehicles. Police allege the man got into the vehicle and assaulted the male driver, while a child sat in the back seat.
The officer, female passenger and male driver together managed to restrain the suspect inside the vehicle, according to the release. The police confiscated the weapon, but the man continued to fight.
When the man got out of the vehicle and again aggressively approached the officer, a 40-millimetre sponge-tipped plastic projectile was used to no effect, the police said. A second officer then successfully deployed a CEW and police apprehended the man.
He was taken to the hospital, evaluated and released into RCMP custody.
Randy Nepinak from Minegoziibe Anishinabe has been charged with: assault with a weapon, assault, resisting/obstructing a peace officer, possession of a weapon for dangerous purposes, two counts of robbery with an offensive weapon, and assaulting a police officer with a weapon/causing bodily harm.
More stories from CBC News: