Gun blasts shatter wedding

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TREVOR.HAGAN@FREEPRESS.MB.CA / RUTH.BONNEVILLE@FREEPRESS.MB.CA (inset) Bride Angel Raven takes in the scene outside Club 13 at 1364 Main St. after the shooting late Saturday. (Left) Rear entrance to Club 13 where gunman entered wedding and started spraying bullets. The door was propped open because it was hot inside.

A shooting at a Winnipeg wedding reception Saturday night that left a 50-year-old woman dead and two others injured appears to be linked to an unprecedented escalation of gang violence.Several justice sources told the Free Press the attack marks a dark new chapter in the city's criminal history -- especially since the three victims appear to be innocents who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"It's getting to be like Compton out there," a source said Sunday, referring to the notorious crime-riddled city in Los Angeles county.

The cheerful celebration inside Club 13 turned into a nightmare when a gunman sprayed bullets into the Main Street club. The unknown attacker fired several shots towards a crowd of people through the back door, which was open to allow fresh air to get inside.

The reception was well underway at Club 13 at the intersection of Cathedral Avenue when Cheryl Robert, 50, was struck in the upper body as she and her common-law husband perused raffle prizes. Her partner was treated in hospital for injuries to his upper and lower body that were not life-threatening. A 31-year-old woman was also treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries to her upper body.

As of Sunday evening, no arrest had been made and police hadn't released the suspect's description.

"His actions were clearly a cowardly, violent act against innocent people here," Const. Jacqueline Chaput said.

Sources say several members of the Manitoba Warriors street gang were at the reception -- including a groomsman. The groomsman and several fellow gang associates fled the facility as the bullets started flying, but were later located and questioned by police.

"They were likely the targets," a justice source said.

The gunman is believed to have fled in a vehicle following the shooting.

Sources say associates of the Hells Angels were seen in the area at the time.

"Some bikers were seen in the area," Staff Sgt. Gordon Gold confirmed. "Coincidence or not, it's too early to tell."

Blocks away, at Main Street and Mountain Avenue, at least six police cruisers and members of the police dog unit drew their guns on a man and woman in a black Cadillac Escalade. The pair was handcuffed and put in police cars.

Gold couldn't confirm whether the two incidents are related.

"The Warriors have issues with several gangs, including the Hells Angels, the Indian Posse and the Native Syndicate," a source said. Earlier this year, long-simmering tensions between the Manitoba Warriors and Native Syndicate escalated into a riot at Stony Mountain Institution, which sent four inmates to hospital and damaged one of the penitentiary's living units.

Saturday's attack occurred at about 11:15 p.m. while Jason Rodgers and Angel Raven were celebrating with a blowout party that included a couple of hundred friends and family after they'd exchanged wedding vows.

After the shooting, Main Street was abuzz with a swarm of police cruisers. Officers taped off the area and loaded wedding guests onto transit buses so they could take statements from them.

The distraught bride stood outside the club before police escorted her past the yellow tape to a nearby cruiser.

Angel Raven's brother, Trevor, was standing next to Robert when she was shot. "We just heard the gunshots and she went down. Then the guy -- he got hit and he (slumped) over."

His wife, Sheila Sinclair, ran over to check the woman's pulse and said another guest administered CPR before paramedics arrived. Sinclair said a pool of blood was near the woman's head, sending guests fleeing for the front door.

"She still had her eyes open, she was just laying still -- there was so much blood. I got her blood on me," Sinclair said, pointing to the splotches of dried blood scattered on her T-shirt. "There was so much blood on her and the back of her head."

Robert's family rushed to Health Sciences Centre to say a tearful goodbye just before she died, sources said.

Stunned guest Gail Kwyeriga said she mistook the sound of gunfire for balloons popping, but ducked to the floor when she realized people were hurt.

"I just wanted to know where my kids were. We all huddled down on the floor."

A bullet grazed the back of another woman's leg. Sandra, who asked that her last name not be published, lifted up a pant leg to reveal a red hole.

"I felt it and I knew I was shot," she said. "It just burned. I was freaking out. I didn't know what was happening."

The wedding couple was barely acquainted with Robert, who was the common-law partner of a family friend.

A visibly upset Raven stressed that neither she nor her husband belong to any gang. She came to the defence of the groomsman alleged to be a member of the Manitoba Warriors.

"I don't care who he knows. He's a nice guy," she said. "He's the type of guy who would help someone, not hurt someone."

She called the gunman a coward for opening fire into a room filled with children -- including her own six-year-old daughter.

The rear door wasn't supposed to be open, according to a guest named Chris. "The place was a sauna. They popped open the back door to ventilate it."

Officers in the organized crime unit spent Sunday interviewing witnesses, contacts and sources.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca arielle.godbout@freepress.mb.ca jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 27, 2009 A3