Three men charged in Magnus Avenue slaying

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This article was published 16/02/2024 (693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three men have been charged with killing a 26-year-old man from Lake Manitoba First Nation who was living in a Magnus Avenue rooming house.

On Friday, Winnipeg police identified Mitchell Michael Hanslip as the victim.

Officers were called to 374 Magnus Ave., just east of Salter Street, at about 2:40 a.m. Thursday in relation to a report about armed men. Three men who were running from the scene were taken into custody. Police seized a gun and later found Hanslip’s body in the rooming house.

Police said the suspects, armed with weapons including the gun, forced their way into a suite, confronted Hanslip and then shot him.

Isaiah Adrian Moose, 23, Sydney Vain Moose, 22, and Ashtan Cole Peters, 28, have been charged with second-degree murder, firearms charges and breaching court orders.

Isaiah Moose was, until recently, out on a release order for an alleged assault and assault with a weapon, but Crown prosecutors stayed those charges in mid-January, court records show. He has no other pending charges or convictions in Manitoba.

Sydney Moose, court records show, was convicted in February 2023 in Portage provincial court of a break, enter and theft for which he was sentenced to two years less a day in jail, one year of supervised probation and a 10-year court order banning him from possessing weapons.

He’s also been convicted of possessing property obtained by crime over $5,000, assaulting a peace officer and a domestic assault, court records show.

Most significantly, he was convicted of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death in 2021, for which he was jailed 121 days and banned from driving for three years.

Peters was convicted of assault cause bodily harm in June 2019 and was given three years of supervised probation and seven months in jail, records show.

On Thursday, forensic investigators came and went from the house that was sectioned off by yellow crime tape. In a second-storey window, police could be seen taking photos as officers in a patrol car guarded the scene.

A neighbour said Thursday said he had witnessed many people arrive by taxi or car, pop into the home for short periods of time, and head out. He said he believed that was a sign drugs were being sold from the home.

The neighbour said at least two adults and several children lived in the rooming house.

Hanslip is the sixth person to be slain in Winnipeg this year.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca