News briefs for Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Police are investigating after a man was found dead in a Cathedral Avenue home Tuesday afternoon.

Officers responded to a report of a suspicious death in the 600 block of Cathedral Avenue at around 3 p.m. Tuesday and believe the man found in the home is the victim of a homicide.

Police have identified the victim as Pajo (Paul) Radocaj, an 83-year-old Winnipeg man.

Anyone with information should call 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.

A man is dead after an assault at a Higgins Avenue hotel early Wednesday morning.

Higgins was closed off with crime-scene tape between Main and Austin streets through the morning while police investigated a stabbing at the Mount Royal Hotel.

Officers were called to the hotel at 3:05 a.m., where they found a seriously injured adult male in front of the establishment and administered emergency medical care. He was taken to hospital in critical condition, where he was pronounced dead.

The victim’s name and age have not yet been released. The homicide unit asks anyone with information on the slaying to call 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.

The annual bout between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders, affectionately referred to as the Banjo Bowl, has officially sold out, the Bombers announced Wednesday.

The Sept. 10 game, which comes a week after the annual Labour Day weekend clash in Regina, is the first sellout of the season for the Blue and Gold. It’s also the eighth straight year the Banjo Bowl will had a full crowd, consisting of 33,500 people at IG Field.

According to the Bombers, only a handful of those tickets — around a few hundred — have been sold to fans in Saskatchewan. Winnipeg has averaged the highest attendance in the CFL through 10 weeks, with an audience of 27,600.

Since its inaugural game in 2004, the Bombers have a record of 10-7, winning five of the previous six meetings.

A four-year-old girl was shot in Norway House Tuesday night.

RCMP officers were called around 11:30 p.m. about someone shooting off a gun from an all-terrain vehicle in the Indigenous community, about 30 kilometres north of Lake Winnipeg.

Mounties raced to the scene, where they were directed to the girl, who was suffering from a non-life threatening gunshot wound. She had been standing outside a home when she was struck, RCMP said Wednesday.

Witnesses told RCMP they had seen two males on the ATV at the time of the shooting. While officers and paramedics were on scene, they heard “several” more gunshots. More Mounties arrived and after knocking on doors in the neighbourhood, identified two suspects.

Officers arrested a 16-year-old boy at his home, while the other suspect, a 19-year-old man, remains at large.

They both grew up playing hockey in their native Finland and were NHL teammates for parts of four seasons.

Now, forward Teemu Selanne and defenceman Teppo Numminen are being recognized together for their contributions to the Winnipeg Jets, as the latest class to be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame.

The Jets made the announcement Wednesday afternoon, setting the stage for a formal induction scheduled for Nov. 17, prior to puck drop against the Anaheim Ducks at Canada Life Centre. It will mark the fifth class to be added to the Hall of Fame, which was first established during the 2016-17 season, with its inaugural inductees consisting of The Hot Line — a trio that included Swedish forwards Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson and Bobby Hull — from the 1970s, when the Jets were part of the World Hockey Association.

Other inductees include Thomas Steen and Randy Carlyle (2019-20); Ab McDonald and Lars-Erik Sjoberg (2018-19); and Dale Hawerchuk (2017-18).

Selanne, who was affectionately known as “The Finnish Flash,” played in 231 regular-season games for the Jets, between 1992 and 1996, registering 147 goals and 159 assists for 306 points. He set an NHL record for most goals as a first-year player, with 76 in 84 games, on his way to winning the NHL’s Calder trophy, awarded to the league’s top rookie.

Numminen played 547 regular-season games for the Jets over eight seasons (1988-1996), tallying 53 goals and 212 assists for 265 points. He would move to Phoenix after the Jets relocated to the desert, where he played seven seasons for the Coyotes ahead of stops in Dallas and Buffalo.

Manitoba’s film and television production industry is expected to get a major boost with the announcement today that WestJet will start direct flights from Winnipeg to Los Angeles.

The year-round, three-time-per-week flights will start Oct. 31 and the announcement comes just a week after the province granted the Winnipeg Airports Authority $4.8 million to improve direct flight connectivity from Winnipeg to major international markets.

The film production sector in Manitoba — which last year generated $364.5 million in activity — has long said that the lack of direct flights to L.A. has hindered the industry’s desire to grow.

Rod Bruinooge, interim CEO and film commissioner with Manitoba Film & Music, said, “This is a game changer for Manitoba’s film industry.”

Moose Lake RCMP are searching for a 23-year-old woman charged with second-degree murder in a January homicide in the northern community.

Mounties were called to a home on Portage Road in the community northwest of The Pas at about 6 a.m. on Jan. 4, where a 28-year-old man was found seriously injured outside. He was pronounced dead in hospital in The Pas. His name has not been released.

Officers have since charged Tia Rolande Grey with second-degree murder, but she’s evading law enforcement.

RCMP ask anyone with information on her whereabouts to call the local detachment at 204-678-2307 or submit anonymous tips online.