Unicity police shooting: Winnipeg criminal justice professor weighs in on use of force

A University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor says it appears the way police officers handled the threat at Unicity shopping centre on Sunday – where an officer was stabbed in the throat and a suspect was fatally shot – goes against standard police guidelines.

BACKGROUND: Officer stabbed in throat, one dead after police shooting in Winnipeg’s west end

While department chair Kelly Gorkoff believes more information is needed to determine whether the officers’ actions were warranted, she feels too often officers are “reacting” to situations.

“Police officers are trained in a situation to assess, plan, and act,” Gorkoff said. “Those are the guidelines that they’re supposed to be trained on: assess the situation, plan what to do, and then act. Not react.

“And I think that officers aren’t in an easy position, certainly, but they need to think about what’s the best outcome, generally speaking.”

Gorkoff’s comments follow those made by Winnipeg Police Service Acting Chief Art Stannard during a press conference Sunday, when he called the officers’ actions a “reaction” to the suspect.

“These members are dedicated police officers, officers who did not ever want to take a life,” Stannard added.

Police were called early Sunday evening to the Unicity shopping area in Winnipeg’s far west about an officer who had been stabbed in the throat and a suspect who had been shot. Officers had been in the area as part of a retail theft initiative.

Police said the man who was shot was given CPR at the scene before he was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. They said the injured officer was also transported to hospital and treated for his injury.

The Independent Investigation Unit (IIU) is currently investigating the incident.

Videos circulating on social media appear to show a man being shot outside a bus shelter.

In a 24-second clip, two police officers tell a person “to put it down” and “to drop it.” It’s not clear in the video whether the man who was shot was holding a weapon. The man appears to advance toward the officers and at least one officer begins shooting. Multiple shots ring out.

“The idea of that rapid fire, like in succession – they shot like 10 times – the intention wasn’t to get the individual under control,” Gorkoff feels. “It really sort of was shoot to kill.”

Stannard told reporters Sunday he’s aware of the video and asked the public to avoid rushing to judgment.

According Gorkoff, despite the dangerous suspect, police must remain cautious before acting in these kinds of situations.

“Police need to be cautious all the time, even if someone is injured,” she said. “They should be trained to recognize: a) what is the threat of that person to somebody else, and b) exercising proper restraint in the situation by taking into a variety of factors.”

The incident has sparked a debate about what constitutes the use of excessive force when apprehending dangerous suspects.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew offered condolences Monday to the family. He told reporters no one wants to see a person die after an altercation with police, but officers are often tasked with responding to high-risk situations.

“Police officers have a difficult job to do, that’s at the best of times, so I support law enforcement,” he said.

“When we’re thinking about the holidays and people going to the malls and people going to the shopping areas around the province, people have got to be safe.”

Coun. Markus Chambers, chair of the Winnipeg Police Board, noted Sunday’s incident could renew calls for the board to implement body cameras.

“Body-worn cameras likely wouldn’t have resulted in this not happening, but it is a mechanism of looking at the accountability around what happened,” Chambers said.

The councillor said the board would be monitoring the rollout of body cameras in RCMP detachments across the province to see if they’re effective.

–With files from Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press