No charges recommended against officers who killed man in tragic 2024 incident, Manitoba watchdog says
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WARNING: This story contains details about violence and attempted suicide.
Manitoba’s police watchdog has decided not to recommend charges against officers who shot and killed a man last year after he stabbed one of them in the throat while they were responding to a shoplifting report in Winnipeg.
“In reviewing the evidence available, the civilian director is of the opinion that the subject officers were reasonable in their actions,” said a final report from the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, dated Dec. 1 and released Tuesday.
“The subject officers did not commit a criminal offence in this tragic incident. Therefore, no charges are recommended and the IIU investigation is now completed and closed.”
While the report did not include the name of the man killed by police, CBC News previously identified him as Jordan Charlie, 24, from Nunavut.
The investigation into his death included reviewing surveillance footage and accounts from several civilian witnesses who saw and heard some of the moments leading up to the fatal shooting, which happened near a bus shelter in the parking lot of Winnipeg’s Unicity Shopping Centre.
The officer who was stabbed said Charlie punched him in the neck, and he later realized he’d been stabbed when he saw blood on his glove. (Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba)
One witness was a loss prevention officer at the nearby Walmart store, who said she called police after seeing a suspicious person, later determined to be Charlie, trigger an alarm as he left the store.
That witness said police pulled up and pointed guns at Charlie, telling him to “drop the knife and axe” in his hands, while Charlie yelled back at them.
Other witnesses who spoke to investigators saw varying parts of the incident, including police continuously telling Charlie to drop his weapons before firing their guns at him and providing him medical assistance after he fell to the ground.
While neither of the officers who shot Charlie agreed to be interviewed by investigators, their notes and prepared statements indicated the officer who was stabbed said Charlie punched him in the neck. He later saw blood on his glove and realized he’d been stabbed.
The stab missed the major arteries and was glued shut, the IIU report said.
A toxicology report found methamphetamine in Charlie’s blood.
A scene identification report said a hatchet and an X-Acto knife were found near the bus shelter where Charlie fell after he was shot.
So was the backpack he was carrying, which contained a sealed Rapala fisherman’s fillet combo and two sealed Coghlan’s camp axes — both items that are sold at Walmart, the IIU report said.
Charlie was brought to Manitoba from Nunavut to serve time at the Stony Mountain Institution north of Winnipeg, court recordings reviewed by CBC News last year revealed. He had been sentenced to 4½ years in federal prison in September 2019 for two unprovoked attacks that took place in Yellowknife earlier that year.
A worker who knew him through Tunngasugit Inuit Resource Centre in Winnipeg said Charlie mentioned wanting to get treatment for drug addiction and find a job.
Charlie’s lawyer had previously told a provincial court judge that he had no way to get back to Nunavut after his release from Stony Mountain, leaving him transient and stuck in Winnipeg.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba says the backpack Charlie was carrying contained a sealed Rapala fisherman’s fillet combo and two sealed Coghlan’s camp axes. (Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba)
The lawyer also said Charlie had attempted suicide while at Stony Mountain, after “depression got the better of him” — an incident that left his brain without oxygen for a period of time and resulted in lasting brain damage and memory issues.
Charlie’s upbringing was marred by addictions, physical violence, witnessing sexual violence, as well as intergenerational effects of residential and day schools. He was also sent to a range of group homes and foster homes, says a Parole Board of Canada decision from 2023.
He also had a history of self-harm, behaviour Charlie’s case management team described as a “maladaptive and impulsive method of seeking connection and affirmation” as he was cared for by staff, which was likely due to the lack of caregivers during his childhood, that decision said.
A psychiatric risk assessment in 2022 found that Charlie had chronic mental health issues and other conditions, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, a traumatic brain injury, intellectual disability and low cognitive function, the parole board said.
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