Winnipeg Free Press

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Prices subject to change without notice. While quantities last. ® ™ Trademarks of AM Royalties Limited Partnership used under license by AIR MILES Loyalty Inc. and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation. WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A5 NEWS I PROVINCE WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2025 Woman on highway near Carberry shot by RCMP MANITOBA’S police watchdog is in- vestigating after a Mountie shot a woman accused of carrying a weapon, wandering through traffic and climb- ing onto vehicles on the Trans-Canada Highway Monday night. A 54-year-old woman from the Muni- cipality of North Cypress-Langford was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly after 9:21 p.m., the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said in a news release Tuesday. In a separate release, RCMP said of- ficers responded to an area near Road 88 West, about nine kilometres west of Carberry, to reports of “an unknown person causing a disturbance.” Multiple witnesses told police a person was walk- ing onto and out of the highway, which forced traffic to slow down, RCMP said. “The first officer to arrive on scene, witnessed a female, acting erratic- ally and climbing up onto vehicles on the highway, while in possession of an edged weapon,” RCMP said. “The officer made numerous at- tempts to de-escalate the situation, however, the female ignored the offi- cer and continued to behave erratically while brandishing the edged weapon.” The officer repeatedly told the woman to drop the weapon, but she turned and moved towards him as he approached, RCMP said. The officer then shot the woman. Police gave her medical aid until emergency crews arrived and took her to the hospital in stable condition, RCMP said. The IIU said the woman was first taken to the Brandon Regional Health Centre and later transferred to Health Sciences Centre. A spokesperson for STARS Air Ambulance confirmed a helicopter was dispatched to the Brandon hospital around 1:45 a.m. to fly a female patient, in her mid-50s, to Winnipeg. They could not confirm whether the transfer was connected to the police incident, nor the patient’s status at the time of the flight. Video from the officer’s body cam- era will be turned over to the IIU, but will not be made available to the public, RCMP spokesperson Michelle Lissel told the Free Press. Manitoba RCMP began equipping some front-line officers with body cam- eras last November. At the time, Mani- toba RCMP assistant commissioner Scott McMurchy said police will have some discretion about whether to release recordings publicly, provided that disclo- sure complies with privacy legislation. The RCMP said nobody was available to answer further questions on Tuesday. The shooting closed a stretch of the Trans-Canada for several hours. Manitoba Highways first announced the closure around 11 p.m., saying the westbound lanes from Road 87 West to Highway 351 were closed due to a po- lice incident. That remained in effect until 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, the province said in an update. The Brandon Sun visited the scene around 8 a.m. and saw the westbound lanes were closed for about one kilo- metre and RCMP officers were direct- ing traffic to a gravel road that runs parallel to the eastbound lanes. There was an investigation vehicle on-site and yellow markers had been placed at the scene. Small pieces of debris were scattered on the westbound lanes and beside the highway. It is unclear what caused the debris. Lissel confirmed there was no colli- sion related to the police shooting. Police are still investigating how the woman ended up on the highway, she said. Jason Cameron said he was making the roughly 35-kilometre journey from Carberry to Brandon around 4:30 a.m. when he came across the detour. Cameron said it was “dark, dusty and difficult to see” what was happening on the highway, but noted police had used caution tape to cordon off a large swath of the westbound lanes. He did not learn about the shoot- ing until later in the day, after RCMP issued a news release. “It’s just very strange,” Cameron said, noting many people in Carberry are curious about what happened. Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead said he started receiving calls from locals asking about the highway closure first thing in the morning. Like Cameron, he did not learn what happened until later in the day. Muirhead said he had no additional information. The IIU asked any witnesses or people with additional video footage or information to contact investigators at 1-844-667-6060. —With files from the Brandon Sun tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TYLER SEARLE ‘We must say their names, too’ Marchers demand attention on missing, murdered Indigenous men M ORE than 100 people took to the streets seeking justice for missing and murdered Indigen- ous men and boys and more support for their loved ones Tuesday. Participants — many of whom are mothers, daughters and sisters of missing and slain men — held photos of family members and friends. They began the march at the Can- adian Museum for Human Rights and ended on the steps of the legislative building, where water and food was handed out and speeches were held. Organizer Corinne Chief, whose brother Felix Bernard Chief was killed in a violent assault in Winnipeg in 2021, wants to see the walk become an annual gathering and national day in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys. “We need to come together and get those same supports and services, re- sources, that our missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit and gender-diverse (people) get… be- cause their lives matter too,” Chief said. Her brother’s killers were convicted — Chief describes them as Indigen- ous, under 30 years old and victims of inter-generational trauma — but she said their sentences were short and one is already out on parole. Chief said many of the people who came out Tues- day were similarly seeking closure they haven’t been able to find. “I didn’t receive it,” she said. “I had the anger, the frustration.” A 2024 Stats Canada report on Indigen- ous victims of homicide, which used 2022 data, found Indigenous people accounted for 27 per cent of homicides where iden- tity information was available. Men outnumber women, unless the victim was a missing person at the time of their death. Two-thirds of Indigenous homicide victims who were considered missing at the time of death were women. At the time of the report, Manitoba had the highest Indigenous homicide rate per 100,000 people in the country. Glennis Bird, a member of Peguis First Nation, told the crowd her family faced cruelty and indifference by the justice system when her brother, John Andrew Bird, went missing in 1998. “(Police) said, ‘You know, he’ll come home when he’s done partying, when he sobers up.’ I was so upset, my mom had to calm me down, because that wasn’t our family, that wasn’t our truth… So we did what so many Indigenous fam- ilies are forced to do — we became the search party,” she said. Her brother was found dead in the Red River in March 1999. She wants men and boys to be a greater part of the conversation about violence against In- digenous people. “He was someone special, and he is someone worth remembering, like all the other brothers, sons, uncles, cous- ins and grandsons. We must say their names too,” she said. “We must honour them when we speak of the missing and murdered In- digenous peoples across Canada.” Marches focusing on men, boys and gender-diverse people have grown in recent years across Canada. In 2023, Edmonton advocates created “Blue Jean Jacket Day,” an annual event focused on honouring Indigenous men and boys. On Wednesday, the wife of a man who was slain last year will hold an event of her own. Taylor Kowalenko-Caribou, whose fiancé Leo Caribou died in hospital af- ter he was found unresponsive from an apparent assault near Notre Dame Av- enue and Isabel Street on May 14, 2024, plans to hold a vigil at the site to mark the one-year anniversary of his death. “It’s hard to grieve and get closure when you don’t even know what hap- pened,” she said. “We live our lives every day, feeling his loss and going without him, when the people who did it are walk- ing out there, living their best lives.” Kowalenko-Caribou, 24, said she and Caribou’s family have yet to receive de- tailed updates on the Winnipeg Police Service homicide investigation since shortly after his death at age 23. No ar- rests have been made. She attended the Tuesday march. She said her vigil is to call for police to put more effort into solving her fiancé’s death, as well as other cases of missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys. “I’m all about advocating not just for Leo, but all of the missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys that don’t re- ceive as much attention as women and girls,” said Kowalenko-Caribou. Police have provided no public update on the investigation into Caribou’s death since May 2024, but expect to issue a news release on the case Wednesday. malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca MALAK ABAS AND ERIK PINDERA MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Participants, many of whom are mothers, daughters and sisters of missing and slain men, marched from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to the legislative building. ;