Manitoba’s police watchdog has cleared an officer who shot and killed a 27-year-old man in Winnipeg earlier this year.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) says the shooting happened in the early morning hours of March 10 when officers responded to a call of a man stabbing another man on Kowalsky Avenue.
The IIU says when officers arrived, they “engaged” with the suspect, “resulting in an officer discharging their firearm.”
The man was transported to Health Sciences Centre where he later died.
According to the IIU report released Friday, the victim told investigators the man who was shot was “normally a loving and caring individual” but was more like “…a demon and not the person he knew” on the night of the attack.
The victim said he suspected the man had taken “a large amount of mushrooms” which had turned him into “…a monster.”
The victim also told IIU investigators he believes the man suffered from undiagnosed schizophrenia.
The IIU says its investigators interviewed four officers and five civilian witnesses.
It says the agency’s director concluded there were no grounds to justify any charges against the officer.
The IIU did not name the officer or the shooting victim.
The IIU’s report into the shooting says a toxicology report found no drugs or alcohol in the man’s system after he was shot. But the IIU notes the RCMP national laboratory that did the report has no method of confirming if psilocin, or magic mushrooms, were in the man’s system.
–With files from Shane Gibson