The police officers deployed for the distress call to an apartment in Winnipeg opened fire on a 19-year-old Nigerian student, Afolabi Stephen Opaso, was killed instantly.
The Winnipeg Police Service said in a statement that when officers responded at an apartment suite in the first 100 block of University Crescent, they were confronted by Opaso, who was reported to have been armed with two knives.
In the course of their encounter, an officer discharged their firearm and struck the university student who died despite attempts to get him medical treatment at a hospital.
While the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU) has been notified and assumed responsibility for the investigation, the family of the deceased are seeking answers regarding what happened to the 19-year-old.
Opaso, according to a lawyer who’s assisting the family, was a student of the University of Manitoba.
“If the issue was to unarm the person, was the shot necessary?” Jean-René Dominique Kwilu, told CBC.
Winnipeg police chief, Danny Smyth, stated that the police didn’t know much about the deceased.
“I think we had one other encounter with him, sometime last July, where we assisted him by providing him with a ride,” he said. “He has no other record with us, and certainly no criminal record.”
The police chief added that the other two people in the suite with Opaso were safe, and now considered witnesses.
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