Police seek suspect in Smith Street slaying

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This article was published 12/05/2022 (1412 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The alleged gunman wanted in connection to a fatal shooting in a downtown hotel bar earlier this month is an admitted Manitoba Warriors gang member with a lengthy record of violent offences.

Winnipeg Police Service homicide detectives have identified Christopher Curtis Bone, 31, as their suspect in the slaying of Ryan Mitchell Spence.

The 39-year-old Winnipeg man was shot and killed in a hotel bar on the 300 block of Smith Street, just after midnight May 1.

Detectives have since issued a second-degree murder warrant for Bone, described as 6-2, 355 lb., and considered armed and dangerous.

City police have asked anyone with information on Bone’s whereabouts to call 204-986-6508, 911, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

Bone has a lengthy history of violence, court records reviewed by the Free Press show, including a 2015 conviction in an assault and kidnapping.

In 2010, he was convicted of theft over $5,000, theft under $5,000, driving while impaired, possessing cannabis for the purpose of trafficking and assault.

Over the next two years, Bone was convicted of various court condition breaches, failing to attend court, another theft under $5,000, identity fraud and another assault.

On April 15, 2015, while on probation but wanted on a warrant for failing to report to probation services and breaching a court-ordered curfew, Bone and two others kidnapped a 60-year-old man, who had spent the evening playing video lotteries at a Winnipeg hotel.

Court was later told Bone had confirmed he was in good standing with the Manitoba Warriors as a striker (probationary member).

Bone and two others followed the man out the back door of the Main Street hotel bar, accosted him, placed him in a headlock and threatened him with a stabbing. They stole $140 in cash, as well as a gold chain, wallet and keys, and later, his cellphone, court was told.

The trio forced him into the backseat of his own rental car and drove him to a Main Street bank, where he was threatened again and told to withdraw his remaining $40-$60, court heard. Bone, who was behind the wheel with a suspended license, drove the trio and their victim outside of Winnipeg on Highway 8 for 20-30 minutes.

The victim was assaulted several more times during the drive, court heard, and asked how he would like to be killed, whether by a knife or gunshot.

The man was dropped near a rural Manitoba Hydro station and told to run for his life, court heard. He hid in a ditch and later hitch-hiked back to the city.

Bone pleaded guilty and was convicted of kidnapping and extortion in December 2015. He was sentenced to three years, 27 days in custody and given a 10-year weapons prohibition.

In 2019, Bone pleaded guilty to assaulting his on-and-off again girlfriend and stealing cash after a dispute, court heard. He was sentenced to time in custody of just under four months.

In 2020, he pleaded guilty to possession of a scheduled substance and served time in custody. Earlier that year, he had pleaded guilty to possessing a weapon contrary to a firearm prohibition order.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera