‘Behaving erratically’: Winnipeg officer fatally shoots armed man after brother calls for help
Posted July 14, 2026 1:25 pm.
Last Updated July 14, 2026 6:27 pm.
Winnipeg police say a 42-year-old man allegedly armed with an edged weapon was fatally shot by an officer outside his home in the Lindenwoods neighbourhood Monday night.
Manitoba’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU), has been tasked with investigating.
The victim’s family is at a loss as loved ones try to understand what unfolded.
“They are in shock right now,” said sister-in-law Erica Smith. “They can’t process anything right now.
“Mental health is a big factor and to escalate so quickly is very alarming.”
The Winnipeg Police Service says the man had locked himself in his home on Avon Gate, locking his brother out of their shared home in the process.
The man was reportedly “behaving erratically” and threatening to damage property, according to the brother’s first call to police at 8:42 p.m. The IIU, in a news release, said the caller also told the police dispatch his brother had mental-health issues and was not taking prescribed medication.
The brother called police again at 9:58 p.m., telling dispatch he was still locked out of the house and that his brother was now screaming at him through a window.
“The caller had waited a prolonged period of time, was locked outside the home, and the calls appeared to be escalated in terms of the situation that the individual in the home was reacting in ways that were erratic,” WPS Deputy Chief George Labossière told a press conference.
That escalation is why Labossière says it wasn’t suitable to have the city’s mental health crisis unit called in. Winnipeg’s Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis program (ARCC) pairs a plain-clothed officer with a specialized mental-health clinician.
“We never want to put our civilian members in positions that might present violence of any kind,” Labossière said.
Instead, a two-officer unit was dispatched at 10:02 p.m., according to IIU, and arrived at 10:23 p.m. Neither of the officers was wearing a body camera, and Winnipeg police cruisers are not equipped with recording devices.
Police say 12 minutes after arriving, the man exited the home armed with a weapon, and he was shot by police. He was taken to hospital in critical condition where he died of his injuries.
“When they arrived on scene, they weren’t able to get into the home,” Labossière said. “Subsequently, after a few moments of being on scene, the individual came out on his own.”
Labossière says the time it took from the first call to police arriving on scene — 101 minutes — is “not abnormal.” He said the dispatch queue was quite long, and officers attended as quickly as they could.
“Theresponse times depend greatly on the number of calls that are waiting in our queue,” he said. “We are paying very close attention to the priority of the calls that are there and attending more urgent calls quicker than the other ones.”
–With files from Sofia Frolova and The Canadian Press
