WINNIPEG — Alberta's police watchdog has cleared a Winnipeg officer of any wrongdoing in the shooting death of a 19-year-old university student who armed himself with knives while in the throes of a mental health crisis.
An investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team found that the officer acted reasonably when he shot the man three times after the man ran at officers responding to a wellness check call.
The report said two officers responded to a call about someone acting erratically at an apartment near the University of Manitoba on Dec. 31, 2023, and were confronted by a man holding two kitchen knives.
A lawyer for the family previously identified the man as Afolabi Stephen Opaso, an undergraduate economics student from Nigeria.
Investigators relied on interviews with witnesses and other officers, audio recordings and additional materials collected to form their opinion.
The report says the officer who fired the shots declined to be interviewed and did not provide his notes or report, something that is not required.
The investigation was forwarded to Alberta's police watchdog after it was determined there may be a conflict of interest. The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba previously said that an officer involved in the shooting is a close relative of an employee within the same department the organization works out of.
The unit said there were no concerns over work investigators had already completed, but concluded that an outside agency should look into the matter.
The investigation found there was "ample evidence" from the witnesses interviewed that Opaso was acting oddly in the day leading up to the shooting and was likely experiencing a mental health crisis prior to police arriving.
When the two officers arrived, they told Opaso to drop the knives multiple times before he began to run at them, said the report issued Wednesday.
"Within a short time after the officers arrived, the (shooting officer) fired three times, striking the (man) each time. Despite attempts to save his life, the (man) was declared deceased at the hospital," the report said.
The cause of death was determined to be three gunshot wounds, the report said. One entered the left chest and passed through a lung and the aorta. One entered the left back and entered a lung. One entered the left hip area.
The report said the responding officers did not have time to use less lethal forces, noting that one officer interviewed said she tried to reach for a stun gun. An audio recording showed the three shots were fired in quick succession, indicating there was no evidence Opaso had stopped running at the police, the investigation found.
"They were responding in a careful fashion when the (man) suddenly escalated and ran at them with knives. The (shooting officer's) use of force in this situation was reasonable," the report said.
Opaso's family has indicated they were looking for answers as to why the call was not treated as a mental health situation, which could have allowed a mental health expert to join the response, the family lawyer previously said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.
The Canadian Press
