Blades, beatings top kill list

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   • Winnipeg and Manitoba had the country’s highest rate of homicides for 2011. How concerned are you about being personally affected by homicide?

Stabbings and beatings were used in an equal number of homicides in Winnipeg in 2011.

A Statistics Canada report on the country's homicides in 2011, released on Tuesday, states 204 of the country's 598 homicides involved stabbings, up from 165 in 2010.

Shootings caused 158 homicides, down for the fourth-straight year, with the homicide rate dropping to an almost-50-year low after peaking in 1991.

The statistics in Winnipeg mirror the national figures, except in one area -- beating deaths.

Of the 39 homicides in Winnipeg in 2011 in which police have released the cause of death, 12 were committed with knives, but an equal number were the result of beatings.

There were two homicides discovered by police earlier this year that were committed in 2011, but the statistics had already been compiled so they were not included in the 2011 statistics.

Seven people were slain in shootings in 2011 while one person was strangled.

One of the reasons Winnipeg's homicide numbers were so high in 2011 -- 39 homicides were the most ever recorded in the city -- is because five of the year's slayings resulted from an arson in Point Douglas in July.

Lulonda Lynn Flett, who initially faced five counts of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder, later pleaded guilty to five counts of manslaughter. Flett will be sentenced in March.

A Winnipeg police spokeswoman said on Tuesday the force is reviewing the Statistics Canada report and cannot comment at this time.

Michael Weinrath, chairman of the University of Winnipeg criminal justice department, said the numbers are "unfortunate, but it suggests we still have some problems in Winnipeg.

"It's pretty tough to police your way out of it because a lot of them are acts of passion -- even the gang ones," Weinrath said.

It has been a few months since Statistics Canada released results in July showing both Winnipeg and Manitoba had the highest rates of homicides for metropolitan areas and provinces in 2011.

Researchers at Statistics Canada have had a chance to delve deeper into the numbers.

Besides looking at the weapon of choice in homicides, they also looked at which gender commits the most homicides and how many are gang-related.

Winnipeg's 2011 homicide rate was 5.08 per 100,000 people, up from the city's rate in 2010 of 2.82. There were 22 homicides in Winnipeg in 2010.

The city with the next highest homicide rate in 2011 was Halifax, with 4.41 homicides per 100,000 people based on 18 homicides.

Across Manitoba, the 2011 homicide rate was 4.24 per 100,000 people based on 53 homicides, up from 3.65 per 100,000 in 2010 based on 45 homicides. The national average was 1.73 per 100,000 people, with 598 homicides across Canada in 2011.

It marks the fifth-straight year Manitoba has reported the highest homicide rate among Canada's provinces.

Weinrath said average homicide numbers in Winnipeg have risen during the last two decades. He said it's a statistic often overlooked.

He said while the average number of homicides was 18 from 1990 to 2000, the number jumped to 25 between 2001 and 2010.

"My suspicion now is looking at 2010, 2011 and 2012, we'll probably go up another 25 to 30 per cent," Weinrath said.

"We need prevention. We need to focus on schools in the early years, especially grades 1 and 2... if you have someone with a Grade 8 education who is barely literate, they are hard to help. There's not too many jobs they can do."

There were 12 homicides in Manitoba attributed to gang activity in 2011, up from five the year before.

The statistics showed there was one homicide in Manitoba in 2011 involving a person killing their spouse, down from three in 2010 and five in 2009.

Across the country, seven in 10 homicide victims are men, while nine in 10 accused of committing homicide are men.

In Winnipeg in 2011, 30 men and 10 women were charged with homicide.

There were 30 victims who were men and nine who were women.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Of the 39 homicides recorded in Winnipeg in 2011, an equal number were the result of beatings and stabbings.

12

knife-related

12

beatings

7

gun-related

5

arson-related

1

strangulation

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 5, 2012 B1