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Man hurt in encounter with police chose ‘lethal force interaction’: report

The Independent Investigation Unit — Manitoba’s police watchdog — reached that conclusion after probing last December’s late-night shooting at a central-area apartment block.

Four officers were checking a call about a body when they encountered a 25-year-old man with a knife who answered an apartment door after police orders to open up.

He was wounded in the abdomen and right ear when commands to drop the knife were refused.

The investigation team says he couldn’t remember anything about the confrontation because of alcohol consumption, while two neighbours said they heard the officers give numerous commands to surrender before firing.

The man is still facing charges that were laid following the incident.

The IIU said the man withdrew the knife from his pants pocket after refusing to drop it, and it was at this point that one of the officers used the Taser and a second officer fired his gun twice.

“The male, in the face of these commands and armed police, chose to produce the knife in a combative style,” IIU civilian director Zane Tessler wrote in his report.

“The likelihood that he 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 IIU was mandated to investigate because the police gunfire resulted in injuries.

News from © Canadian Press Enterprises Inc., 2018