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CTV News
5 days ago
- CTV News
Police acted reasonably in death of man during well-being call in 2019: inquest report
An inquest report into the death of a man over five years ago following an encounter with Winnipeg police says police and emergency officials did the best they could in the circumstances, and there was nothing they could do differently to save the man. Aaron Ross, 29, died on Sept. 30, 2019, one week after officers responded to a well-being call near the riverbank on Assiniboine Avenue near Kennedy Street. According to the inquest report, Ross was observed to be naked and behaving erratically and tried to head towards the river. Officers restrained him and handcuffed him while waiting for the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service to arrive. During the incident, Ross became unresponsive and needed to be resuscitated at the scene. He was taken to hospital, but it was found he suffered a catastrophic brain injury when he went unresponsive. He died in hospital a week later. In her decision, Judge Sandra Chapman said police officers and paramedics all did the best they could with the training they had. 'In this case, there is no evidence that the police or medical personnel could have done anything more than they did,' she wrote. An autopsy found that Ross had methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death, and his cause of death was determined to be an 'anoxic brain injury' linked to the cardiac arrest and the 'excited delirium' he was experiencing at the time. Excited delirium sees a person's adrenaline increase to the point that their heart rate goes up, and it could induce cardiac arrest. It added that the 'physiological stress of struggle and restraint by police' was a factor in Ross' death, but was not related to the immediate cause of death. 'The officers only intervened with Mr. Ross when his safety was in question and did so in a manner that was the shortest time possible,' Chapman wrote. 'There is no evidence to suggest that they used any excessive force while restraining Mr. Ross. And all evidence suggests the force used was reasonable in the circumstances.' The report noted police training stipulated that officers should not physically engage with an individual experiencing an agitated chaotic event—a term WPS now uses in place of excited delirium—to keep them as calm as possible until a medical team can arrive. The independent Investigation Unit cleared police of any wrongdoing in 2021.
CBC
5 days ago
- CBC
Death of man during well-being call on Winnipeg riverbank 'tragic,' but police acted reasonably: inquest
Social Sharing The inquest into the death of a man who went into cardiac arrest while police were responding to a well-being call near Winnipeg's riverwalk has determined police and medical personnel acted reasonably during the incident, and there was nothing they could have done differently to save the man. Aaron Ross, 27, died on Sept. 30, 2019, several days after he suffered cardiac arrest on the riverbank. An autopsy confirmed he died from an anoxic brain injury — a lack of oxygen to the brain — due to complications of the cardiac arrest, which in turn was the result of methamphetamine toxicity, according to an inquest report dated July 15. However, the report also identifies the "physiological stress of struggle and restraint by police" as a "significant" contribution to his death. An inquest into his death was called in June 2021 after the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, the province's police watchdog agency, cleared the officers who treated him during a well-being call of any wrongdoing. In the final inquest report, provincial court Judge Sandra Chapman said Ross's death was a "tragic incident," adding that "unfortunately, these types of incidents are more and more prevalent" in Manitoba. However, she made no recommendations to prevent similar deaths from happening in the future. "The police officers and the paramedics all performed in accordance with the relevant policies and their training. Their actions were reasonable in the circumstances," Chapman wrote in the 31-page report. Taken to ground, handcuffed Winnipeg police responded to a well-being call just before 1 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2019, after getting a call about a naked man behaving erratically on the riverbank near Assiniboine Avenue and Kennedy Street, close to the Manitoba Legislative Building. People living in the area told police they saw Ross take his clothes off and said he was yelling nonsensically before he fell backwards, hitting his head on what appeared to be the curb of the riverwalk, the inquest report said. Officers told the inquest they found Ross lying on his back, yelling randomly, and as they approached, he stood up and started walking toward the river. The officers testified they feared for his safety, and tried to bring him down to the ground. After a struggle, they got him down on the ground, face-down, and handcuffed him. He continued to flail around while on the ground, the inquest heard. Paramedics were called due to concern Ross's behaviour suggested he could be having a medical event. The first medic to arrive was unable to calm him down, so he was sedated. Ross later became unresponsive and he was resuscitated before being taken to St. Boniface Hospital, where he died a week later. Manitoba's chief medical examiner also initially said Ross's death was due in part to "excited delirium" — a term the inquest notes Winnipeg police have stopped using because "it is in fact a medical term and one that they may not be clinically trained to determine," the inquest report says. A situation such as Ross's is now called "an agitated chaotic event," the report says. Evidence at the inquest suggested Winnipeg police followed the appropriate protocols, including calling for paramedics and only intervening when Ross's safety was in question, and over the shortest amount of time possible, Chapman said. However, she noted there was a gap between the response time of police and medics. "I cannot say in this case that the attendance of the advanced care paramedic with the police would have made a difference, but possibly it may have," she said.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From Gaza to South Sudan, private firms deliver aid and face questions
By Aaron Ross JUBA (Reuters) -Fifty-kilo sacks of food hurtled out the open hatch of the cargo plane, scattering in the wind on their 1,000-foot descent to the northeastern flatlands of South Sudan. For the past three weeks, an American company run by former U.S. soldiers and officials has airdropped hundreds of tonnes of maize flour, beans and salt into one of the world's most desperate pockets of hunger. The campaign, which South Sudan's government says it is funding, has brought lifesaving aid to areas ravaged since February by fighting between the military and local militiamen. It also offers a window into a debate about the future of humanitarian aid in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and cuts to aid budgets around the world. The South Sudan contract is one of a growing list of business opportunities for Fogbow, an outfit of about a dozen people that first distributed food last year in Gaza and Sudan. Fogbow president Mick Mulroy said the company - which is owned by a former U.S. diplomat, a Marine Corps veteran and an American businessman - now has five project requests in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East. Mulroy attributed the rising demand to donors looking to support humanitarian projects but increasingly hard-pressed to find implementing partners due to aid cuts. "There's a substantial and growing need from people around the world at a time when we decided collectively to reduce the support," said Mulroy, who was a deputy assistant secretary of defence during Trump's first term. For some aid sector veterans, the demand for Fogbow's services points to a worrying shift toward a more politicised aid model that they say sacrifices humanitarian principles like neutrality and, by extension, its credibility with beneficiaries. In Gaza, a U.S.-backed outfit that Israel has authorised to distribute food in the Palestinian enclave, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has bypassed the U.N.-led aid system and been accused by some critics of weaponising aid in service of Israel's war aims. Asked for comment, GHF said it had found a "better model" to ensure food was delivered in Gaza. "Bottom line, our aid is getting in and feeding people while aid from other groups is getting looted and not being delivered," it said in an email. Fogbow says it has no connection to GHF. But its operation in South Sudan is raising some of the same questions because it is working directly on behalf of a party to an active conflict. The campaign has been complicated by its association with the government: the aid comes in sacks marked "South Sudan Humanitarian Relief" and emblazoned with the national flag. Some people have refused the food because they don't trust the government, whose forces are bombarding parts of Upper Nile, according to two residents, opposition politicians and a U.N. source. "They expect people to take the food but we say 'no' to our people," said Manpiny Pal, a senior local government official in Ulang County, one of two in Upper Nile targeted by the airdrops. "We need the food of the U.N. How do we know if that food dropped has something in it?" said Pal, who is from the opposition SPLM-IO party. The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), which plans to distribute over 160,000 tonnes of food in South Sudan this year, said last month that no humanitarian aid was getting to the two counties by the usual river route due to the fighting. Asked if WFP had considered airdropping food there, a spokesperson said airdrops were a last resort because they cost up to 17 times more than deliveries by road or river. HUMANITARIAN PRINCIPLES Some veteran humanitarians have deep misgivings about Fogbow's model. Martin Griffiths, who served as the top humanitarian official at the United Nations from 2021 to 2024, urged against trying to reinvent the wheel. "The humanitarian community is large and amorphous. It is also careful. And finally it is experienced. This is a well to draw on and I wish this was done by Fogbow," Griffiths told Reuters. Michael VanRooyen, the director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which researches humanitarian issues, said Fogbow and GHF were undermining an evidence and needs-based approach to aid. "These organisations are not humanitarian. They are agents of a government, intended to fulfill political and in some cases military purposes," he said. Fogbow officials say they are a logistics provider rather than a humanitarian organisation but try to align their projects with humanitarian principles. Chris Hyslop, Fogbow's humanitarian lead and a veteran of the U.N. system, said he had near-daily contacts with WFP to discuss drop locations and ask for input. He acknowledged complications from working directly with the government but said such concerns had to be weighed against the benefits of national authorities taking responsibility for their own people. The WFP spokesperson said that while the agency receives a daily update from Fogbow on drop locations to deconflict airspace, it has no involvement in the operation. South Sudan's government said it asked Fogbow, rather than WFP, to do the drops in order to expedite the rollout and show it was taking responsibility for its citizens. "Here is a government taking up responsibility as a core mandate of that government," said Chol Ajongo, the minister of presidential affairs. The government declined to say how much it was spending to distribute the 600 tonnes of food. Fifty-seven percent of South Sudan's more than 13 million people suffer acute food insecurity, according to the U.N., but the country has only received pledges covering 20% of its $1.69 billion in estimated humanitarian needs for 2025. 'WE'RE GONNA TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT' Fogbow's leaders express respect for the U.N. and traditional non-governmental organisations and say they would be happy to work as contractors within the existing system. But they also think they can do better. Fogbow CEO and co-owner Brook Jerue said the company's previous work had shown the advantages of its military background and willingness to innovate. In Gaza, Fogbow advocated for sending food on barges across the Mediterranean from Cyprus to avoid bottlenecks at land crossings. Many humanitarians opposed the idea, arguing it would ease political pressure on Israel to open land routes. "The humanitarian community was super upset with us because they were all pushing for land crossings, and we were just like, 'hey, we're gonna try something different'," said Jerue, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot. Fogbow dropped its barges plan when then-U.S. President Joe Biden decided in March 2024 to deliver aid through a U.S. military-built floating pier. Fogbow went on to deliver 1,100 tonnes of flour through the U.S. pier and an Israeli port with funding from Qatar, Jerue said. Later last year, it used profits from the Gaza operation to finance airdrops into Sudan's remote South Kordofan state before USAID offered to provide funding, Jerue said. The State Department declined to comment on that operation. A spokesperson said the U.S. was not involved in the aidrops in South Sudan but voiced support for "burden-sharing among capable nations". WAR AND SUSPICION Fogbow's model is facing its sternest test in Upper Nile's Ulang and Nasir Counties, which the U.N. on Thursday said are at risk of famine in the coming months after fighting this year forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes. Each morning and afternoon, a cargo plane carrying 16 tonnes of food leaves the capital Juba for one of two drop sites. The food is collected by workers from an independent local NGO and then distributed. While the aid has reached around 30,000 people, the government-led campaign has faced resistance rooted in accusations of abuses by the military, including allegations made by local residents - and supported by Human Rights Watch - that government planes have dropped incendiary weapons. The government denies this and says it does everything possible to minimise harm to civilians. The SPLM-IO has accused the military of coercing displaced civilians to return home to collect the food. Local residents have also questioned the decision to drop food into Nasir, a military garrison town largely deserted by civilians after heavy fighting in March, as opposed to areas with high concentrations of displaced people. The government denied any coercion but acknowledged the drops into Nasir were intended to encourage people to return and show it could provide for them. "For you to claim the legitimacy and the representation of the people of South Sudan, you must have presence in all those places," said Ajongo.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
US weighing future of military command in Africa, top general says
By Aaron Ross NAIROBI (Reuters) -The United States is assessing the future of its military command for Africa, its top general for the continent said on Tuesday, and called on African governments to make their views on its possible elimination known in Washington. President Donald Trump's administration is considering merging AFRICOM, which became a distinct geographical command in 2008, with the U.S. command in Europe to cut bureaucracy, American media outlets reported in March. Speaking to reporters before a conference of African defence chiefs in Kenya, AFRICOM's commander, General Michael Langley, said he had discussed the issue with officials on the continent. "I've talked to a number of ministers of defence and a few presidents and told them we were assessing," Langley said. He said governments should make their views about AFRICOM's future known through their ambassadors in the U.S. "That's what I tell them. I said: 'okay, if we're that important to (you), you need to communicate that and we'll see'." Before 2008, U.S. military activities in Africa were handled by commands from other regions. AFRICOM's creation reflected rising U.S. national security interests on the continent, including Islamist insurgencies and competition with China and Russia. In West Africa, where groups with ties to al Qaeda and Islamic State have grown in recent years, U.S. security influence has waned following a series of military coups. The putsches forced Washington to pull back on security support and brought to power juntas that have turned to Russia for assistance. Last year, the ruling junta in Niger ordered the U.S. to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country and vacate a $100 million drone base. Langley said the U.S. had nevertheless maintained some intelligence sharing with the military regimes in the Sahel region and was looking for "other ways to continue to stay engaged".
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Historic pub reopens promising top food and ale
A PUB in Herefordshire's stunning Wye Valley has reopened to customers. The Hostelrie at Goodrich has been in the village for many years and was originally built in the 18th century. Now with owner Aaron Ross and pub manager Corrin Franks at the helm, the Hostelrie has a new vision to be a rural pub with high-quality food and great tasting ales. READ MORE: 'Amazing news' as pub reaches the final of yet another award Grammy-nominated musician to perform at city bar Rare war medal sold to private buyer for £40,000 Corrin says being based very close to Goodrich Castle and right in the heart of the Wye Valley is a huge draw for not just the nearby village but also visitors such as walkers. "We have a dedicated new team ready to welcome the locals back, Corrin said. It is a great pub, we have fantastic recipes and Goodrich has made it extra special by helping us." The Hostelrie's chef is Corrin's daughter Amy, who has high hopes to give customers honest food in a friendly setting. Sourcing produce from Herefordshire and regional producers, everything will be cooked with care. Also managing the nearby Cross Keys Inn just off the A40, Corrin adds that reopening Hostelrie "has been well received by the community." The new team at the pub did a survey to find out what people's preferences and recommendations were for what makes a great community pub. Out of 77 respondents, the top use of a pub was to use it for drinks and socialising. A popular feature was good quality, well-priced food, enjoying locally-brewed ales and also appreciating event such as quiz nights. New positions are posted on the pub's website including front of house, a junior chef, bar staff and waiting staff. "We have a new challenge and we have hopes to push forward and make Hostelrie succeed, Corrin said. The pub is in a beautiful part of the world." A dog-friendly pub, a large beer garden on offer plus eight en-suite rooms, the Hostelrie has for far had good reviews on Tripadvisor. Good Friday was the official relaunch date and one visitor describes attending the opening evening as "a wonderful night. What a difference! Treated to great food, the game pie was first class. Wye Valley beers on tap, fantastic hosts and lovely atmosphere. Can't recommend highly enough."
