‘It didn’t have to end like this’: family of man shot dead by police says he struggled with mental health

The family of a 42-year-old Winnipeg man shot and killed by police in Linden Woods on Monday night says the incident raises troubling questions about how officers respond to people in mental-health crisis.

“Their reaction to mental health is my concern,” said the man’s sister-in-law, Erica Smith, who spoke outside her brother-in-law’s Avon Gate home on Tuesday. She said her brother-in-law struggled with his mental health.

“It didn’t have to end like this,” she said, fighting back tears. “It could have ended differently.”

Police said officers encountered the man armed with an “edged weapon” at the home when they arrived shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Prior to that, a man called police at about 8:40 p.m. to advise his brother, who had been acting unusually and threatening to damage property, locked him out of their shared home in the south Winnipeg neighbourhood, Winnipeg Police Service Deputy Chief George Labossiere said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Just before 10 p.m., the man called police again to say he was still locked out and that his brother was now screaming at him through a window, said police.

When officers arrived at the home, they were unable to get in the house.

Minutes later, at 10:35 p.m., the man exited the home while armed with an unspecified weapon with a blade and confronted the officers.

The man was shot by at least one of the two officers. Labossiere would not clarify whether both officers fired their weapons. Police said in a news release that “a police service firearm was discharged.”

The pair of officers, as well as a neighbour, gave the man first aid. He was taken to Health Sciences Centre in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead.

Labossiere said the queue for 911 was long Monday night and, because of the initial call, it wasn’t given a higher priority.

“I would like to offer my heartfelt sympathies to family and loved ones of the deceased,” said Labossiere.

Labossiere said the Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis program — which pairs a plainclothes police officer with a mental health worker to respond to non-violent, non-emergent crisis calls — was considered but ultimately deemed inappropriate for the situation.

“The ARCC unit is made up of an officer and a civilian member,” Labossiere said. “We never want to put our civilian members in positions that might present violence of any kind.”

He declined to say whether the victim had threatened to harm himself or anyone else before officers arrived, and would not elaborate on whether there were signs the situation had turned violent.

“I don’t know, other than the fact that I can comment that the caller had waited a prolonged period of time, was locked outside of the home, and that the call appeared to be escalating in terms of the situation, that the individual in the home was reacting in ways that were erratic,” he said. “So not necessarily the type of call we’d want to send our ARCC unit to.”

Officers were not equipped with body-worn cameras during the shooting, Labossiere said.

The two officers who responded to the call have been placed on the police service’s critical incident protocol, taking them out of the workplace while the investigation is undertaken. The protocol is there to assist officers’ well-being while also keeping the integrity and neutrality of the investigation intact.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba is now probing the incident.

The oversight agency investigates all major incidents involving police in the province, including when people are seriously injured or killed while interacting with police or in their custody.

In a release, the IIU said the brother who was locked out of the house told police that the victim “had mental health issues and was not taking prescribed medication.”

Notices were left in neighbouring mailboxes from the police watchdog, asking people to contact them for the investigation.

Albert Lee, who has lived in the neighbourhood since 1985, said he’s never experienced something like this before on the street, as it’s usually a peaceful area.

He said that peace was shattered by two loud bangs.

“It was like something smashed into a board or something,” he said. “I wasn’t sure what it was… because I’ve never heard the sound of a gunshot before.”

A day later, he said he didn’t feel any different about his neighbourhood.

“It can happen anywhere,” he said.

At the home Tuesday afternoon, where the victim also lived with his aunt, uncle and a family friend, blood was visible on the driveway.

Smith said the victim’s mother is in Argentina and was notified of the death.

“She’s not doing well,” Smith said, adding that she has four sons, including the victim. “To find out your son was shot is pretty traumatic. I can only put myself in her shoes and try and imagine it.

“She loved her sons. She loves all of them, a lot. I just can’t imagine what is going through her head right now.”

Smith said her brother-in-law was a kind man who kept to himself and like to play videos games.

“He knows Spanish, he learned English, he knows German,” she said. “He’s an intelligent person. He would willingly come to Christmas dinners.

“I know that the family is going to miss him. He’s the first son in this family.”

The incident was the third fatal police shooting this year, all of which have taken place in the past two months.

Witnesses or individuals who have information or video footage that may assist the investigation are asked to contact the IIU toll-free at 1-844-667-6060.

— with files from Erik Pindera and Morgan Modjeski

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca