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CTV News
a day 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
2 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.
