No charges for officer after man killed during knife attack on roommates: Manitoba police watchdog

A Winnipeg police officer who shot and killed a 27-year-old man as heattackedhis roommate with a knife last year will not face any charges, Manitoba's police watchdog says.

The investigation stems from an incidenton Kowalsky Crescent in Charleswood in the early hours of March 10, 2020, that led to the death of the 27-year-old man.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which looks into all serious incidents involving police in the province, released its final report on the shooting on Friday. Civilian director Zane Tessler concluded there were no grounds to justify any charges against the officer.

The evidence gathered through the watchdog's investigation included interviews with five witnesses, including the couple attacked by the 27-year-old.

The man and woman said they woke up shortly after 4 a.m. on March 10 to find their roommate standing over their bed with a knife. The manhad been staying with them for a week before the incident, they told investigators.

The roommate started attacking the other man with the knife and later a pair of scissors, and at one point also bit his genitals, according to the investigative unit's report. The woman called 911, and after she got off the phone, the roommate started attacking her, too, she told investigators.

The man who was attacked said on that night, his roommate wasn't the person he knew. Once "loving and caring," he suddenly became more like "a demon."

"It was like the demon attacking him appeared to be enjoying himself and wanted to kill him," the report quoted the man as saying.

The couple said they believed their roommate suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness, and suspected he had taken so-called magic mushrooms that night.

The toxicology report later done on the man's body found no traces of drugs, though the report noted the laboratory didn't have a method to confirm the presence of psilocin the part of the drug that causes hallucinations in the man's system.

The woman told investigators that she was able to get the knife away from the attacker and threw it down a set of stairs to the home's main floor.

The couple alsowent downstairs, followed by their roommate. The man told investigatorshe ran out onto the driveway and was tackled to the ground. His roommate stabbed him several times, including in his legs and right eye.

Meanwhile, the woman stepped outside for a moment but quickly went back in and locked the door, fearing for her safety.

Entire attack captured bysurveillance video

Surveillance footage from a nearby home captured the incident, including police shooting the attacker, on video, the report said. That footage "represented a clear and detailed recording of the entire incident and materially corroborated the evidence of all the witnesses," Tessler wrote.

It showed the manon top of his roommate, making stabbing motions as police officers who respondedtried to pull him off. Officers also kicked the attacker several times, pulled him by the hair and used a stun gun on him to no effect, the report said.

A timeline created based on the surveillance footagesays police arrivedabout 10 minutes after the men went outside. Roughly a minute later, one of the officers shot theattacker, according to the timeline in the report.

The attacker was taken to hospital, where he later died from a gunshot wound to his lower back.

The man and woman attacked were both seriously injured, the report said. The woman had large cuts on her hand, behind her ear and across her forehead, while the man had several stab wounds and bite marks. He was also permanently blinded in his right eye.

The evidence collected shows the officer who shot the man "held a reasonable and honest belief that [there was] a real likelihood that [the attacker] could have delivered a potentially lethal injury to [the other man] unless that threat was eliminated through the officer's use of lethal force," Tessler wrote.

An officer who is the subject of a watchdog investigation can't be forced to provide their notes on an incident or participate in an interview with investigators under provincial policing legislation.

While the officer who shot the man did not agree toan interview with the investigative unit, she did provide a copy of her notes and a written statement detailing what happened, the report said.

Tessler concluded the officer's use of lethal force "was justified as it was based on reasonable grounds and necessary to save [a man's] life," and said hisinvestigation into the incident is now closed.