Accused teen just out of jail

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/10/2011 (5450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 14-year-old Winnipeg boy accused of carrying out a gang-related “hit” had only recently got out of jail for shooting at a postal carrier last year.

The teen, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has already amassed a disturbing criminal history that culminated in his arrest this week for first-degree murder.

“We were saying before, this kid is going to kill someone. Now he (allegedly) has,” a justice source told the Free Press on Friday.

David Michael Vincett, 20, was gunned down while walking in the 500 block of Boyd Avenue about 3 a.m. last Sunday. Police and justice officials believe the shooting was cold-blooded retaliation for another recent gangland slaying involving youths. Police arrested the suspect Tuesday evening and detained him in custody.

The same accused was just 13 years old when he confronted a 51-year-old Canada Post employee who was delivering mail one afternoon last November on Aberdeen Avenue in the North End. The boy initially demanded money and pepper spray from the victim, then pulled out a sawed-off shotgun, loaded it and fired.

The letter carrier narrowly avoided being hit and fled the scene without injury. Police arrested the teen in the neighbourhood later that afternoon.

“A number of people had seen the suspect walking around with the weapon. We are fortunate no one was injured. This kind of attitude will not be tolerated,” Winnipeg police Const. Natalie Aitken told media at the time.

The youth spent more than three months in custody before pleading guilty last March to several offences, including robbery with a firearm, discharging a firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon. He also admitted to breaching numerous pre-existing court orders that he was under at the time of the shooting based on previous crimes he’d committed.

No real motive was offered for the brazen daylight attack, nor was it clear how someone so young got his hands on a sawed-off shotgun. Court was told the youth has suffered from a traumatic upbringing filled with the type of abuse and neglect so commonly seen in young criminals.

If he’d been an adult, he would have faced a mandatory four-year minimum prison sentence for the crime. Instead, the boy was given just three more months in custody, followed by three months of community supervision and two years of supervised probation. He was also given a 10-year weapons prohibition.

He was released from jail in June and returned to the community, where he remained until his arrest this week for the most serious offence in the Criminal Code.

Police believe Vincett’s slaying is tied to the Sept. 10 stabbing death of Clark Stevenson, 15, as he rode his bike near the corner of College Avenue and Aikins Street.

Days later, an 18-year-old man and 14-year-old boy were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Before his death, Stevenson had boasted online about being a member of a local street gang. After the arrests, police acknowledged the homicide was motivated by gang tensions.

“These groups appear to be in conflict with one another right now and we’re aware of that… and unfortunately we have two incidents where we have openly acknowledged that’s the case,” Winnipeg police Const. Jason Michalyshen said this week.

The boy accused of shooting Vincett was affiliated with gangs and may have had “similar associations” as Stevenson, police said.

“These don’t appear to be random acts, certain individuals appear to be targeted,” Michalyshen said.

He said that before the shooting, Vincett and another teenager allegedly traded words about belonging to rival street gangs before a gun was pulled out and fired in Vincett’s face. Police said Vincett was dead by the time officers arrived.

 

www.mikeoncrime.com