Winnipeg officers cleared in death of handcuffed man experiencing ‘cocaine intoxication’: police watchdog

A man who died shortly soon after remaining handcuffed by Winnipeg police near the Manitoba Legislature was dealing with extreme “cocaine intoxication,” according to the provincial police watchdog, which has cleared officers of any wrongdoing.

Winnipeg police had been named Nov. 4, 2021, about a man behaving aggressively and erratically on and just off Osborne Road, in the region of the legislature grounds. Officers arrived about 7:15 p.m., states the report from the Independent Investigation Device, the civilian oversight company for police in Manitoba.

The gentleman was handcuffed and collapsed soon just after. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Services was on web site and immediately administered CPR. The gentleman was rushed to St. Boniface Clinic, the place he was pronounced useless.

The gentleman was later on identified by family as George Simeonidis Jr., who owned Santa Lucia Pizza on Corydon Avenue.

The IIU investigated the incident, but was delayed in the process due to autopsy and toxicology reviews having lengthier than anticipated, according to its report, which was introduced Thursday.

An autopsy was performed on Nov. 5, 2021, and the results — which the investigative device claims were “important to this investigation” — have been expected within six months. Even so, IIU investigators did not obtain the reports till 361 times afterwards.

The autopsy report noted the lead to of dying was cocaine intoxication, with an enlarged coronary heart currently being a contributing variable, the IIU claimed.

The toxicology report mentioned the gentleman experienced a “substantial and abnormal quantity” of the drug in his system, the investigative unit’s report states.

In addition to the autopsy studies, investigators with the law enforcement watchdog company reviewed details that bundled:

• Law enforcement dispatch get in touch with heritage.
• 911 phone connect with history and audio.
• Officers’ notes and narratives.
• Forensic identification provider reviews.
• Images of scene and exhibits.
• The fire-paramedic service’s patient treatment report.
• Surveillance video clip recordings from the Legislative Developing grounds, the Canada Lifestyle building (throughout the road from the legislature) and Winnipeg Transit.

Investigators achieved with, interviewed and reviewed the prepared statements of 12 civilian witnesses, which include firefighters and paramedics.

In accordance to the IIU report, which isn’t going to mention Simeonidis by title, the man was “performing in an incoherent, erratic and aberrant fashion as he walked in, out [of] and as a result of heavy visitors on Osborne Avenue,” near the legislature grounds.

At different moments, he would pace back and forth amongst northbound and southbound visitors or lie down on the centre line. On many situations, he crawled on all fours, the report states.

When law enforcement arrived, the man’s conduct seemed paranoid, and he spoke incoherently, according to the report.

Officers spoke to him in an endeavor to calm him and permit fire-paramedic personnel to evaluate his critical signs, but the person tried to return to the roadway, the report states. In get to prevent him, officers took him to the floor and handcuffed him.

“All witnesses verify (and corroborated by the many online video footage) that the police acted to relaxed [Simeonidis] and allow for for paramedics to treat him above fears of his nicely-currently being,” IIU civilian director Zane Tessler wrote in his report.

“There was no police action or inaction through their software of drive and restraint that contributed in any diploma to [the] demise,” he wrote.

“The instances of this incident represent another tragic instance of the illicit use of drugs such as cocaine. The IIU mandate was to identify no matter if any police officer, by action or inaction, contributed in any way to the death.”

As there are no grounds to advise that was the situation, the  subject is now shut, the report states.