19-year-old armed with knives fatally shot by police near U of M campus: WPS

Winnipeg police say an officer fatally shot a 19-year-old man who was allegedly armed with two knives and “acting erratically” at an apartment off the University of Manitoba campus on New Year’s Eve.

The Winnipeg Police Service says it received a call around 2:20 p.m. about the situation at the apartment suite on University Crescent.

There were two additional people in the suite when officers arrived: a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man. Police say one of them made the 911 call.

Police don’t believe it was a hostage situation but said the caller was “quite concerned,” WPS Chief Danny Smyth said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

On the scene, one of the officers fired at the man, who was taken to hospital by paramedics in critical condition and died of his injuries.

Manitoba’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigation Unit (IIU), will investigate.

Smyth says the man who was shot may have been a student at the university. It’s not clear if he was a resident at the apartment complex or a visitor.

“I think we had one other encounter with him sometime last July, where we assisted him by providing him with a ride, but he has no other record with us and certainly no criminal record,” Smyth said.

The woman and man who were in the suite were not physically injured, police say. They are witnesses in the investigation and spoke to IIU Sunday, according to Smyth.

“I don’t know if they were students or not, clearly they’re young people,” the police chief said. “I don’t know if it was a roommate situation or not.”