ManitobaThe family of a man who died after an arrest by Winnipeg police last year is suing the city and the officers involved in the incident, claiming the force police used was unjustified and constituted assault. James Edwin Wood, 35, died in January 2024 after being arrested by Winnipeg Police.Dave Baxter · CBC News · Posted: Oct 06, 2025 10:11 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoJames Edwin Wood died after an arrest by Winnipeg Police last year, and his family is suing the city and the officers involved in the incident. (Supplied)The family of a man who died after an arrest by Winnipeg police last year is suing the city and the officers involved in the incident, claiming the force police used was unjustified and constituted assault. On Jan. 27, 2024, James Edwin Wood, 35, died in a Winnipeg hospital after he was arrested earlier that day. At the time, witnesses told CBC News that police had used both a stun gun and a baton on the man.Wood’s father, Alexander Brian Wood, filed a statement of claim last week in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench on behalf of Wood’s family, which seeks total damages of $350,000 to be split between several members of the man’s family.The suit names the City of Winnipeg as well as six Winnipeg Police Service officers — five men and one woman — as defendants. None of the officers named are publicly identified in the statement of claim.It claims that two of the officers administered force with weapons “without legal justification” which constituted “assault, battery and trespass.”It also claims that four of the officers involved were derelict in their duties for failing to intervene, assist, or protect Wood. According to the lawsuit, in the early morning hours of Jan, 27, 2024, the Winnipeg Police Service got a call asking them to come to a home where Wood was at the time, but Wood had left the home before police arrived. The suit says soon after, Wood collapsed to the ground in a nearby parking lot on Fairlane Avenue, while the temperature outside was approximately –11 C.Wood was in a vulnerable state when police arrived, and the suit claims it was apparent to the officers that he was Indigenous, in distress and in need of medical attention. The suit says one of the officers approached Wood and deployed their conducted energy weapon “more than once,” and that 50,000 volts of electrical shock were delivered into Wood each time the trigger was pulled. Officers then restrained Wood, the lawsuit claims, and two of the officers proceeded to strike Wood multiple times with their batons in his lower extremities. At the time of the incident Wood was obese, suffered from severe coronary atherosclerotic disease and had ingested both cocaine and alcohol, which the lawsuit says left him defenceless.Factors in deathShortly after his arrest Wood became unresponsive and was taken by ambulance to the Grace Hospital, and later transferred to Health Sciences Centre, where he died. His cause of death was ruled an anoxic brain injury, which happens when the brain becomes deprived of oxygen. A video of the incident has also been widely shared on social media since Wood’s death. The lawsuit claims that it is “reasonably foreseeable” that police officer’s excessive use of force and physical restraint were factors that led to Wood’s death, while also claiming Wood received “differential treatment based on his race.”The lawsuit claims all officers are guilty of applying excessive force without conducting a meaningful investigation, intentionally inflicting pain on Wood, and of “racial profiling.”None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been tested in court and no statements of defence have been filed.CBC has reached out to the City of Winnipeg for comment and is awaiting a response.ABOUT THE AUTHORDave Baxter is an award-winning reporter and editor currently working for CBC Manitoba. Born and raised in Winnipeg, he has also previously reported for the Winnipeg Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press, as well as several rural Manitoba publications.
Family sues city, multiple police officers after man’s 2024 death
