‘It could have been me getting blown up:’ friend of bombing suspect

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2015 (3740 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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When Ollie Ehrmantraut got an odd package in the mail about two weeks ago, he joked with his co-workers that it might be a bomb.

The soft, white package was bendable and about the size of a VHS tape, he said. Ehrmantraut had originally thought it was a book.

As it turns out, it was a bomb — one of three that would be detonated in Winnipeg between July 3 and 5.

The bomb came in a package addressed to his shop, Ollies Automotive on Washington Avenue, and labelled with his friend’s name, Iris Amsel.

Ehrmantraut said he was going to deliver the package to Iris at her workplace, another automotive shop about 100 metres away from his own.

But first, he and his co-workers shook the package around their ears, wondering what it was.

“We were shaking it around… We were laughing actually about the handwriting (on the package) because it looked like something a little kid wrote,” Ehrmantraut said. “Then we thought… maybe it’s a bomb or something.”

Ehrmantraut said he is grateful he didn’t pay more attention to the package or open it.

“So I’m thankful. I’ve got two kids, family, friends, we’ve got a lot going for us,” he said. “That would have been a bad way to go out.”

One of his co-workers left the package on Iris’s desk at work, but because she was on vacation, it went untouched for about three days.

When he heard about the bombing on River Avenue on July 3, which severely injured Iris’s former lawyer, Maria Mitousis, Ehrmantraut spoke to Iris.

He told her she had received a package recently and sent her a picture of it.

Iris told them not to open it and to call police. The bomb unit arrived and detonated the explosive in her automotive shop. No one was hurt.

There wasn’t much damage to the shop other than a hole in the roof, but the outcome could have been much worse, Ehrmantraut said.

“It could have been me getting blown up,” he said. “There was enough (explosives) there to blow our heads off. All four of us would have been decapitated if it would have been in the middle (of the shop).”

Guido Amsel — Iris’s ex-husband — is charged with two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault and several counts related to possessing explosives in connection to the bombings.

The Amsels divorced in March after a messy, 10-year legal battle. The proceedings seemed to end amicably and Guido Amsel was supposed to hold an auction on July 4 to pay back $40,000 he owed his ex-wife.

The bomb on Washington Avenue was detonated the same day the auction was scheduled. It has been postponed while Guido Amsel remains in custody.

None of the charges against Amsel has been proven and he is presumed innocent.

Ehrmantraut had been friends with the Amsels for 15 years, a relationship that began when he worked for them as a mechanic in their previous automotive shop on Raleigh Street.

The men used to practise target shooting together with home-made explosives, Ehrmantraut said. Guido Amsel was always very careful.

“He’s very respectful about rules and properties, and here’s the line, you stay behind the line — safety first and glasses on and don’t forget your ear protection,” Ehrmantraut said, adding Amsel was protective of his mail.

“When I used to work there, it was a very particular thing. You don’t touch anybody’s mail. He would flip out if you touched his mail. That was like a federal offence — you don’t do that. You respect people’s privacy,” he said.

“If you’re nice to (Guido), he’s nice to you — would give you the shirt off his back. He will help you in any way. He helped me in more ways than I can explain, but he has the oddest way of going about things.”

Calls to his former friend have gone unanswered, but Ehrmantraut hopes to get five minutes alone with him soon.

“I’ve got a couple questions I’d like to ask him,” Ehrmantraut said.

Ehrmantraut said when he asked Guido Amsel about a letter bomb at Iris’s home in the RM of St. Clements in 2013, Guido Amsel dodged his questions.

“He didn’t really have an answer, he just gave me this crooked smile kind of thing… he had left it at that,” Ehrmantraut said.

RCMP are still investigating the matter and no arrests have been made in the St. Clements case, they said last week.

Had the police solved the 2013 bombing case, Ehrmantraut thinks the 2015 bombings could have been prevented.

“If you look back in the news, she got bombed before. Maybe if the cops would have done something about it then, it wouldn’t have been so crazy now and they could have saved Maria. She wouldn’t have her hand blown off,” he said.

Iris Amsel is in good spirits right now, all things considered, Ehrmantraut said. She went back to work on Monday.

Ehrmantraut said she is one of the hardest working people he’s known, multi-tasking between paperwork, autobody work, welding, painting and more at her automotive shop.

“A lot of people could take a good lesson from Iris,” he said. “I think she’s doing good, it’s just a lot to take on. And then every time she comes back (to work)… it is just a constant reminder.”

Iris Amsel isn’t ready to speak to the media, but will make a statement through Manitoba Victim Services, one of her co-workers said Monday.

jessica.botelho-urbanski@freepress.mb.ca