Gang-related homicides linked to one another: WPS

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This article was published 04/03/2020 (2061 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OVER the first four days of November 2019, a pair of Winnipeg men in their twenties were shot and killed in what police then called gang-related crimes.

Now, the Winnipeg Police Service says the two homicides were directly tied to one another, with the second carried out in retaliation for the first.

On Nov. 2, 23-year-old Jamshaid Wahabi was killed at Citizen Nightclub on Bannatyne Avenue. Two days later, Rig Debak Moulebou, 20, was shot and killed at a home in South Pointe.

Const. Jay Murray said an investigation determined that Moulebou was responsible for Wahabi’s death, and that his murder was a violent response by rival gang affiliates.

Since January, three men, all 23 years old, have been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Moulebou’s death: Arnold Mbaka Nduta, Abdullahi Abdulrehman Mohamed, and Manuchehr Haroon. Haroon’s arrest came Monday in Brandon.

Had Moulebou not been killed, Murray said he would have been charged with a form of homicide.

Murray said the pair of shootings resulted from a longstanding feud between two groups in Winnipeg, which he noted was ongoing. For fear of inciting further violence or giving either group notoriety, Murray didn’t name either.

After Wahabi’s death, his longtime mentor Abdi Ahmed, the director of Immigration Partnership Winnipeg, told the Free Press the young man had been working to turn his life around, holding down steady work in construction. Moulebou was remembered as a standout high-school football player at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate.

Murray pointed out that the groups involved were not “regular, inner-city gangs,” and that police believed its membership included residents of more affluent neighbourhoods, as well as people who were otherwise employed.

Asked if it was known what led to the initial conflict at the nightclub, Murray demurred, saying that gang-related disputes can be caused by anything from territorial concerns to drug-related matters.

“Something obviously happened in the nightclub that night,” he said. “And it ultimately ended in murder, and we have seen continued violence as a result,” he added.

Murray said that each of the men arrested were relative newcomers, and that for Haroon and Nduta, it was their first encounter with police.

Though three arrests have been made, Murray said police are still gathering information related to the homicides.

Namely, officers are seeking more information related to a black truck and black Mercedes Benz crossover that were parked outside of the South Pointe residence where Moulebou was killed.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca