Man in hospital following officer-involved incident Wednesday afternoon

Winnipeg police provided an update regarding an officer-involved incident that occurred Wednesday afternoon.

Officers responded to a call along Provencher Boulevard near Rue Aulneau after receiving a report of an agitated man trying to drag a woman outside of a building.

When police arrived, they say they found a man acting erratically.

The WPS says the man grabbed a pencil, held it to his neck, and threatened to harm himself.

Officers explain they attempted to de-escalate the situation but were unsuccessful. This led to one of the officers firing a foam bullet and a taser at the man, in an effort to temporarily incapacitate him.

Police Chief Danny Smyth says the foam bullet fired by the officer is still considered to be a firearm. Smyth added the foam bullet left a bruise on the man’s leg.

Smyth also noted that the taser an not effective during the incident as both prongs did not attach to the man.

Police say the man fell to the ground and was continuing to act erratically. They claim he then reached for another object to injure himself, however, officers managed to secure him.

The man was taken to the hospital after being sedated by paramedics.

The WPS says the woman in the incident was not physically injured.

“This call had a positive outcome, no one was seriously injured, but I can say these types of calls are trending up in Winnipeg,” said Smyth.

According to Smyth, the number of mental health calls has continued to grow since the beginning of the pandemic, outnumbering any other call for service.

“We are attending calls like this about 21,000 times a year now, its surpassed domestics. And domestics used to be the highest call for service that we would take.”

Despite this recent number of officer-involved incidents, the vast majority of police interactions with the community do not result in force being needed.

“About 0.33 of per cent of the calls we attend, so less than half a percent of the calls we attend even require any type of use of force. I’m not even talking about lethal force, that’s been consistent for many years,” said Smith.

As for whether the Winnipeg Police Service will consider adopting body cameras like other cities across the country, Smyth says he remains open to the idea.

“I do think eventually most agencies will have it.  It’s a costly thing no question about it, it’s not something that’s going to stop any of this necessarily, but it is a way for us to be more transparent and accountable for interactions that occur daily.”

Manitoba’s police watchdog — the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) — has been notified of the incident and will take over the investigation.