Two Winnipeg police officers won’t be charged after a 25-year-old man armed with a knife was shot and hit with a Taser late last year.
Four officers responded to the call of a dead body at an apartment on Charles Street the night of December 11, 2017.
A man opened the door armed with a knife and wouldn’t drop it after several commands by officers. The Independent Investigation Unit says the suspect took the knife out of his pants pocket and that’s when he was Tasered by one of the officers, while another shot the man in the abdomen and right ear.
The IIU’s investigation found all accounts of the incident were consistent after interviews with the four officers and nearby neighbours who heard the commotion.
“The male, in the face of these commands and armed police, chose to produce the knife in a combative style,” said IIU civilian director Zane Tessler in his report on the investigation.
“The likelihood that the man was capable of using lethal force on any of the officers was real and substantial. The police did not create this lethal force interaction. This was solely the choice of the affected person.”
The man, who the IIU says couldn’t recall the events due to being intoxicated, remains before the courts on charges related to that evening.
