Hatchet-wielding man threatened paramedics, say Winnipeg police

A Winnipeg man is behind bars after a bizarre incident in which he allegedly threatened paramedics with a hatchet, said police.

Police said paramedics were called to the 200 block of Vaughn Street Thursday evening in response to a report of a man in medical distress.

An ambulance brought the man to Health Sciences Centre in stable condition, but before he could be transferred to hospital, he pulled out a hatchet and started threatening the paramedics.

Police said the man was safely disarmed with a taser and taken into custody. There were no injuries.

Const. Rob Carver said they believe drug use may have been a factor in the attack, but could not confirm that it was meth.

“I can tell you that we believe that there were intoxicating substances or drugs in the initial call,” Carver said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I can tell you that we believe that there were intoxicating substances or drugs in the initial call," Carver said.

“The only way we would know, usually, if someone was under the effects of methamphetamine is if 1) we find the meth on them, or they self disclose … that isn’t the case here, so we don’t know if it was methamphetamine.”

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Asst. Chief Mark Reshaur with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said they have noticed a ‘concerning trend’ of increasing violence toward paramedics. He says it has a traumatic effect on the first responders involved as well as their coworkers.

“This is very traumatic for our staff, and it doesn’t just have an immediate effect, it has a cumulative effect. The effect of encountering these incidents over and over again adds up for everybody,” Reshaur said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "This is very traumatic for our staff, and it doesn't just have an immediate effect, it has a cumulative effect. The effect of encountering these incidents over and over again adds up for everybody," Reshaur said.

Reshaur said supports are in place to help emergency crews deal with the after-effects of violent encounters.

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“After and event such as this we immediately engage a critical incident team. It’s peer-support oriented. They attend, they debrief the crew, they attend to their immediate needs and we look forward to how we can support them down the road as a result of this incident.”

After he was medically cleared, the 24-year-old assailant was arrested and charged with possessing a weapon and assault with a weapon.