No charges against Mounties after man died in woods

WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s police watchdog says no RCMP officers will be charged after a man fled from police and was found dead in the woods days later.

“Manitoba Prosecution Service’s opinion is that they are not satisfied there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction and the standard for prosecuting charges has not been met,” the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said in its report, released Tuesday.

The man was previously publicly identified as Devin Ashley McKay, 29, but the IIU did not use his name in its report.

Officers encountered the O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation man just south of the community, which is also known as Crane River, on the morning of Dec. 30, 2022.

He fled from two officers into the bush after they approached a stolen pickup truck in a ditch on Highway 481. He was found dead from hypothermia on the night of Jan. 5, 2023, after he had been reported missing the day before.

Toxicology samples showed he was heavily impaired by alcohol and methamphetamine at the time.

IIU members were told the RCMP did not have the resources to search for McKay the day he ran into the woods. Police had to transport the three people who were arrested near the truck to the Ste. Rose du Lac detachment, the area was lacking available RCMP officers, and no canine unit or drones were available to search for the man, investigators were told.

The officer who was the acting detachment commander at the time told the IIU the two officers involved “were quite upset and mad with themselves” when they learned McKay had been found dead. He said the area McKay ran into was very close to several houses and there was no reason to believe he could not have got to shelter.

“It should be noted that while this area is rural, it is not desolate; there are at least five homes in the nearby vicinity,” the IIU noted in its report.

McKay was found about 60 metres from a home. Videos recorded by a female arrested showed he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt or sweatshirt but not a jacket earlier that morning.

Interviews with civilian and police witnesses about whether McKay was wearing shoes when he ran into the bush “were inconclusive,” the IIU said.

One officer said in a written statement to the IIU that the officers believed they did the right thing by returning to the detachment with the three people arrested, who were entitled to speak with a lawyer in a reasonable amount of time.

The Southern Chiefs’ Organization released a statement in mid-January 2023 calling for a “thorough investigation” of the incident.

“Devin had been missing for almost a week,” the SCO’s grand chief said in the statement. “Why didn’t officers look for him sooner? Why didn’t they do everything they could to find him on the night of their initial encounter, especially when it was reported that he fled on foot on a bitterly cold night?”

The temperature in Dauphin and the surrounding area around the time McKay went into the bush was -17.6 C, or -24 with the wind chill.

» Winnipeg Free Press