Police first became aware of the unidentified man at about 5:20 p.m. when a truck driver in the 800 block of Arlington Street made a 911 call saying a man unknown to him was trying to set fire to the fuel tank on his vehicle with a torch lighter. He was not in the vehicle and the attempt was unsuccessful.

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Manufacturers of the Taser stun gun on Monday unveiled a new handheld weapon on Monday which is capable of shocking three people without having to reload.

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In general terms, she said a Taser is used by police in three ways: as a coercion method, where the sight and sound of the electric arc may induce compliance; as a “dry stun,” where the contacts hitting a person’s body may be painful enough to allow them to be taken into custody; and, through an energy arc that temporarily creates “neuromuscular incapacitation.”

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Taser International chief executive Rick Smith said the new multi-shot Taser would "increase officer safety through the ability to recover from a missed shot or even simultaneously stop up to three separate targets."

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Arizona-based Taser International said in a statement the company's new X3 "electronic control device" was the first new handheld weapon since 2003 and featured enhanced safety details.

Human rights activists have criticized Taser stun guns, challenging manufacturer claims that they are safe and non-lethal.

The man then armed himself with a knife and a rock and ran into traffic along Notre Dame Avenue, confronting people and yelling, police said at a press conference Wednesday.

Cst. Dani McKinnon, a Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman, said it’s too soon to contemplate what charges the man will be facing. She deferred questions about the use-of-force encounter to the Independent Investigative Unit of Manitoba, which investigates serious incidents involving the police.

“During a use-of-force encounter, if one method is deemed ineffective or inappropriate, and it’s taken up into the next level by the officer to gain compliance, if that doesn’t work, you must consider another option for use of force.”

Officers arrived on scene at about 5:23 p.m., confronted the armed male and deployed a Taser, which wasn’t effective, police said. He was then shot by police.

“Sometimes the probes just don’t connect. Whether it’s clothing, whether it’s the drive of the person, there’s just a number of different ways. Some people, they don’t feel that pain for whatever reason,” McKinnon said.

A video demonstration of YouTube showed three volunteers being floored by three successive shots before getting to their feet apparently unhurt.

“It’s a very busy interesection to begin with,” McKinnon said of Arlington Street at Notre Dame Avenue. “You have a lot of vehicle traffic, a lot of pedestrian traffic especially now that the weather’s nice, that area is frequented by many, many people and there’s many factors that are concerning about this.”

The company said the new weapon included a "pulse calibration system" for allowing electricity to be distributed across the outer layers of the skin of the target rather than deep into the body.

A December 2008 report from Amnesty International said 334 people had died after being shocked by Tasers between 2001 and August last year.

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