Shortly before 11 a.m. Monday Winnipegosis RCMP responded to a request to assist EMS transporting a patient to a hospital in Dauphin after the 38-year-old assaulted a paramedic with shears.

Police met the ambulance on the highway and when the officer opened the back of the ambulance the 38-year-old still had possession of the weapon. Continued requests to drop it didn’t work and the man advanced aggressively upon the officer, so the officer deployed a CEW which had no effect.

The male was able to flee walking down the highway with vehicles slowing and eventually stopping at the scene when a woman got out of the passenger side of one of the vehicles and that’s when the armed man jumped in only to assault the driver with the shears while a child was in the back seat.

The officer along with the female passenger and the male driver, managed to restrain the suspect inside the vehicle, and the weapon was confiscated by police. Despite this, the suspect continued to physically fight and got out of the vehicle again aggressively approaching an officer. A 40mm extended range impact round was deployed which had no physical effect on the suspect. A second officer then deployed a CEW, which was successful. Thirty-eight-year-old Randy Nepinak from Pine Creek First Nation was taken to hospital, evaluated and returned to RCMP and is now facing a variety of assault and weapons charges.

One of the paramedics and the driver of the vehicle each suffered minor physical injuries. The child passenger was unharmed.