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Winnipeg’s top cop says he’s going to meet with the head of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority after one of its outreach workers was mistakenly detained during a homicide investigation last week.
Ray Samakese was near his workplace at the WRHA building in downtown Winnipeg on June 18 when police detained him in connection to a fatal stabbing that happened nearby a few hours earlier.
He said officers told him he was being detained because he matched the suspect’s description.
“Where did they get their initial information from to begin with? [Was it] because I was a big Native fellow walking across the street that I matched the description?” Samakese previously told CBC News.
On Wednesday, Winnipeg police Chief Gene Bowers said he will meet with Jane Curtis, interim CEO of the WRHA, in the coming days to discuss what happened.
“We have to recognize that this was a very dynamic call — someone lost their life,” Bowers told reporters at an unrelated news conference.
“There [were] lots of things going on, so I look forward to the opportunity to speak with them to discuss what transpired and see where we can come together on this one.”
Bowers did not say whether he will meet with Samakese, or if the police service will apologize to him.
“I’ve been asked to speak with the CEO, and again, I’ll see where those discussions go,” he said.
Samakese called Bowers’ response “vague and insincere.”
He wanted to hear “more accountability and acknowledgement” from Bowers, “not [for] just myself, but for the disrespect shown to my team as well,” he said in a text message to CBC News on Wednesday.
Ray Samakese, centre, believes he was racially profiled after police detained him following a fatal stabbing near the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority building last week. (Trevor Brine/CBC)
Samakese was released by police after his co-workers “made it clear they had been together all day” and that he was not involved in the stabbing, Curtis said in a statement Monday.
On Tuesday, police said David Bryan Siemens, 37, had been charged with manslaughter in the stabbing of 55-year-old Ronald Findlay, who died in hospital.