Winnipeg is becoming a cesspool of violence

Hugh Freaking DillonHugh Freaking Dillon Posts: 14,010
edited February 2013 in A Moving Train
A slaying linked to gang violence launched Manitoba's long weekend and by Monday, a winter-weather blast had closed highways and been cited as a factor in the death of a stranded motorist.

In between, police, ambulance, and fire crews responded to countless collisions, holdups, a second shooting, and chalked up yet another major drug bust.

The shooting death of a known gang member in Johnny G's Restaurant and Bar on Main Street raised the spectre of a gangland slaying Friday.

William Edward Moar, 24, succumbed to injuries from a single gunshot wound and police released few details over the weekend about suspects or arrests in the investigation.

Police did not report any arrests by Tuesday morning.

People in the bar at the time reported a man dressed in black entered the bar shortly before 2 a.m. when Moar was said to be returning to his table from somewhere else, possibly the washroom. The man in black reportedly fired two shots.

The first shot missed and almost hit an employee, witnesses said. The other shot struck Moar. A staff member who removed Moar's hat said Moar had been hit in the head.

On Saturday, there was a second shooting that injured a man. Police were called to the Quest Inn on Ellice Avenue about 9 p.m. There they learned a man, 24, had made his way to the hotel after being shot at a house party in the North End. He was in hospital in stable condition.

On Sunday, police announced they'd caught some suspects.

Police also arrested the alleged hit-and-run driver in a two-car crash that struck a 53-year-old pedestrian who was waiting for a bus at 6 a.m. Friday at Isabel Street and Notre Dame Avenue. She died shortly afterward.

The 18-year-old suspected drunk driver was charged with a long list of serious offences, including dangerous driving causing death and causing bodily harm, driving impaired causing death and causing bodily harm. The young man was also charged with being a novice driver who drove without supervision and with being in breach of a recognizance.

Police tracked the driver to a residence in the northwest part of the city on Sunday and arrested him.

The 18-year-old was allegedly behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Impala packed with six passengers that ran a red light and hit another car. The force of the collision pushed the second car onto the sidewalk at Isabel Street and Notre Dame Avenue, striking the pedestrian.

The driver of the second car, a Honda CRV, and its three passengers, were injured and all were admitted to hospital in stable condition.

And police rounded up a suspect and charged him in a shooting three weeks earlier that left three men injured.

The three had been at an after-hours club Jan. 27 in the 100 block of Keewatin Avenue when a verbal argument turned violent. The suspect was reported to have pulled out a firearm and shot all three men in the lower body.

A 36-year-old man faces firearms charges.

That was followed by an announcement police had made two more busts in their ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking.

The latest arrests on Valentine's Day netted a cache of nearly $250,000 in cash, a stash of cocaine and marijuana and thousands of dollars worth of property.

A 27-year-old Winnipeg man and a 22-year-old woman from Lockport were arrested and face various criminal charges.

Also Sunday, a pair of suspected robbers, one of whom was reported to be armed, allegedly stole a cash register from a downtown coffee shop near the Law Courts.

The hapless suspects made it about six blocks before police picked them up.

By Monday, the crime spree was still ticking along, despite the foul weather.

Masked robbers hit a convenience store in the 100 block of St. Mary's Road. Neither of the two workers on duty was injured. The two suspects made off with cash, cigarettes and other merchandise. Police did not identify the type of weapons the suspects carried.

Meanwhile, in Portage la Prairie Monday, RCMP reported a home invasion.

A homeowner was allegedly assaulted after two disguised robbers, one brandishing a sword and the other a baseball bat, invaded a house in the city. The homeowner was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Two 18-year-old men, one from Carman and the other from Portage, were later arrested. They remained in custody Monday.

Monday morning, a man who said he was armed held up a pharmacy in the heart of Osborne Village and made off with a stash of prescription drugs, including 180 10-milligram tablets of oxycodone. He was described as a Caucasian man in his mid-50s.

St. Pierre Jolys RCMP reported Monday a man had been found unconscious about 6:30 a.m. on a roadside about five kilometres north of Landmark.

Attempts to resuscitate the 54-year-old local man failed at the scene, just off Provincial Road 210. His name was not released.

Investigators found a vehicle stranded nearby in a ditch and RCMP believe the man left it after he was stranded. He was found about 50 metres away. Visibility and road conditions were treacherous.
Gimli 1993
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • polaris_xpolaris_x Posts: 13,559
    when i was crossing the country on greyhound a few years back ... i stopped in winnipeg to visit friends and she told me to not leave the bus station ... like ... don't step outside ... just wait inside until she got there ... that was kinda crazy ... i'm sure there are spots like that here in toronto but it wouldn't be a major hub like the bus station ...
  • polaris_x wrote:
    when i was crossing the country on greyhound a few years back ... i stopped in winnipeg to visit friends and she told me to not leave the bus station ... like ... don't step outside ... just wait inside until she got there ... that was kinda crazy ... i'm sure there are spots like that here in toronto but it wouldn't be a major hub like the bus station ...

    depends.........during the day pretty much anywhere is safe........past 9pm, the bus station is located right in the middle of nasty central, so yeah, I probably wouldn't either.

    that being said, most of the slayings and stuff like that are between thugs and gangs. not a tonne of random stuff against innocents, but still, being caught in the crossfire could happen.

    I still go downtown at night for concerts and stuff, but shit, the gang violence is getting stupid.
    Gimli 1993
    Fargo 2003
    Winnipeg 2005
    Winnipeg 2011
    St. Paul 2014
  • polaris_xpolaris_x Posts: 13,559
    depends.........during the day pretty much anywhere is safe........past 9pm, the bus station is located right in the middle of nasty central, so yeah, I probably wouldn't either.

    that being said, most of the slayings and stuff like that are between thugs and gangs. not a tonne of random stuff against innocents, but still, being caught in the crossfire could happen.

    I still go downtown at night for concerts and stuff, but shit, the gang violence is getting stupid.

    ya ... i got off at night ... gotta say i wasn't too scared ... it was more the tone of her voice ...
  • lukin2006lukin2006 Posts: 9,087
    Does not surprise me ... things will only get worse ... i live in a small town just outside Windsor, I came home from work a few weeks ago and the police were everywhere, turned out a bank just at the end of my street was just robbed. Nothing ever used to happen here ... I think as long as we continue to bleed good jobs, fail to help our young get established in life, help retrain those that have lost good jobs ... many displaced citizens are going to be turning to crime. Sad part is the amount of violence we see in places like Mexico could someday happen here ... people need good jobs ... not wal mart jobs, mc donald jobs, burger king jobs ... they need jobs with good pay ... imo.
    I have certain rules I live by ... My First Rule ... I don't believe anything the government tells me ... George Carlin

    "Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
  • PJ_SoulPJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 49,963
    I wonder if it's not a phase that most growing cities go through? It seems to me that once Canadian cities reach a certain point of development, they hit the big increase in gang violence phase. And then it levels off.
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,084
    This thread reminds me of a Neil Young Song, "Don't Be Denied":

    When we got to Winnipeg
    I checked in to school.
    I wore white bucks on my feet,
    When I learned the golden rule.
    The punches came fast and hard
    Lying on my back
    in the school yard.
    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
    Democracy Dies in Darkness- Washington Post













  • Sorry to hear about all the crime. At least you northerners don't have as many guns as people or it might be much worse. At least you have a lot of "country" to retreat to and get away from the urban complexes.
  • PJ_SoulPJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 49,963
    whgarrett wrote:
    Sorry to hear about all the crime. At least you northerners don't have as many guns as people or it might be much worse. At least you have a lot of "country" to retreat to and get away from the urban complexes.
    Actually, I'm pretty sure there are more guns per capita in Canada than in the US.... it's just that most of them aren't used for crime (and most of them aren't hand guns or assault weapons).
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • CosmoCosmo Posts: 12,225
    To put things in perspective... everything that was reported in the original post (minus the snow and cold) happens in Los Angeles so often... it doesn't rate a 'newsworthy' ranking. It'll appear in the Crime Blotter of the community newspaper... but, not in the Times and denfinately, not on any of the broadcast news.
    Allen Fieldhouse, home of the 2008 NCAA men's Basketball Champions! Go Jayhawks!
    Hail, Hail!!!
  • PJ_SoulPJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 49,963
    Cosmo wrote:
    To put things in perspective... everything that was reported in the original post (minus the snow and cold) happens in Los Angeles so often... it doesn't rate a 'newsworthy' ranking. It'll appear in the Crime Blotter of the community newspaper... but, not in the Times and denfinately, not on any of the broadcast news.
    Yes, true.... but the day I start evaluating the crime situation in my city by comparing it to LA or Chicago or Atlanta is the day I move to the fuckin' Yukon.
    Crime like that is still a big deal in Canada, thank god.
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • PJ_Soul wrote:
    Cosmo wrote:
    To put things in perspective... everything that was reported in the original post (minus the snow and cold) happens in Los Angeles so often... it doesn't rate a 'newsworthy' ranking. It'll appear in the Crime Blotter of the community newspaper... but, not in the Times and denfinately, not on any of the broadcast news.
    Yes, true.... but the day I start evaluating the crime situation in my city by comparing it to LA or Chicago or Atlanta is the day I move to the fuckin' Yukon.
    Crime like that is still a big deal in Canada, thank god.

    +1
    Gimli 1993
    Fargo 2003
    Winnipeg 2005
    Winnipeg 2011
    St. Paul 2014
  • polaris_xpolaris_x Posts: 13,559
    our social infrastructure is declining and the prosperity gap is widening ... this is a natural outcome ...
  • PJ Soul- I think Canada has about a third of the guns per capita as the U.S.A

    You are definitely right as to the types of guns.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_ ... by_country

    US is #1 with 88 guns per 100 residents.
    Canada is #13 with 30.8 per 100 residents.

    although, this could be very misleading. I think it would make more sense to measure it per household, not per resident.
    Gimli 1993
    Fargo 2003
    Winnipeg 2005
    Winnipeg 2011
    St. Paul 2014
  • PJ_SoulPJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 49,963
    whgarrett wrote:
    PJ Soul- I think Canada has about a third of the guns per capita as the U.S.A

    You are definitely right as to the types of guns.
    Oh, well, there you go - my mistake... I thought we just had huge numbers of hunting rifles... not THAT many as it turns out!
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
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