Local

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Man in custody after two sexual assaults

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 04/14/2012 1:00 AM

A Winnipeg man is in custody after two women were sexually assaulted in separate attacks late Thursday night in the downtown area.

Winnipeg police said the first attack occurred just after 10 p.m. near Donald Street and Graham Avenue, where a 21-year-old woman was grabbed, choked and dragged into a laneway. The assault was broken off when it was interrupted by two passersby. The attacker fled on a bicycle.

At 10:40 p.m., police were told of an attack inside an apartment block at Donald Street and York Avenue.

A man followed a 27-year-old woman into the building, threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her in the building's stairwell.

After the attack, the suspect forced the woman to take him to her vehicle, a 2004 Jeep Liberty. At the vehicle, the woman broke free and fled. The attacker drove off in the stolen vehicle.

Police spotted the stolen Jeep near Portage Avenue and Balmoral Street. The driver ran several red lights and attempted to drive into two police officers, police said. The driver subsequently crashed the Jeep into two vehicles, a house and a fire hydrant before it became disabled near Cumberland Avenue and Balmoral.

The driver fled on foot but was tracked by a canine unit, which found a suspect in the 500 block of Balmoral.

Gary Junior Edwards, 33, faces a number of charges, including two counts of sexual assault with a weapon, kidnapping, two counts of robbery with a weapon, dangerous driving and two counts of assaulting a police officer with a weapon.

Edwards is being held in custody.

-- staff

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 14, 2012 A7