West End shooting may be a targeted gang-related attack: police

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/05/2010 (5589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

brightcove.createExperiences();

 

WINNIPEG – A shooting that killed a teenaged boy in the city’s West End neighbourhood Tuesday afternoon was possibly a targeted, gang-related attack, Winnipeg police said today.

Const. Jason Michalyshen said two suspects arrived at a Toronto Street residence just before 3 p.m. Tuesday, then shot at the two boys, aged 13 and 16.  

The older boy suffered gun shot wounds to his upper and lower body. He was taken to hospital in critical condition and died from his injuries, Michalyshen said. The 13-year-old boy was hit in the lower body,’ he was treated in hospital and released.

“This is not a random act,” Michalyshen said during a news conference from the Public Safety Building this afternoon. “These individuals were targeted.”

A second shooting happened when an associate of the two boys followed their attackers and eventually discharged a firearm in the 600 block of Agnes Street, two blocks to the east of where the initial attack occurred, police said. Two vehicles were struck; they were unrelated to the first shooting and no one was injured.

No arrests have been made.

The two boys who were shot were friends, and they were previously known to police, Michalyshen said. “Both individuals have had police involvement in the past,” he said. “We’ve had contact with them in the past.”

Michalyshen would not say if the boys had gang ties, but he said the shooting was being investigated as possibly gang-related.  A justice source told the Free Press the slain teen had ties to the Indian Posse street gang, and police were bracing against the threat of retaliation.

Michalyshen said that given the shootings occurred in the middle of the afternoon, police believe it’s fortunate that innocent bystanders were not injured.

Police presence in high-crime areas can be increased, Michalyshen said but added that police cannot put officers on every street corner for every hour of the day.

“No community in this city deserves to be subject to this kind (of violence)," Michalyshen said.