Brothers chased, shot in St. James; 15-year-old killed, 17-year-old wounded Overnight violence shocks quiet neighbourhood; ‘innocent kids got caught up in wrong place at wrong time,’ godmother says By: Chris Kitching Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Mar. 6, 2023

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A 15-year-old boy was killed and his 17-year-old brother wounded when they were chased and shot in a St. James neighbourhood early Monday, according to a grieving relative.

The dead boy, identified by family as Phoenix Thompson, was rushed to hospital in critical condition. His brother was transported in unstable condition and later upgraded to stable condition.

“Phoenix is a good kid, he didn’t deserve what happened to him,” his godmother Rolanda Thompson told the Free Press via Facebook Messenger. “They’re both innocent kids that got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The homicide occurred at about 1 a.m. in the 200 block of Amherst Street, between Portage and Bruce avenues.

“The family is heartbroken,” said Rolanda Thompson, whose cousin is the siblings’s devastated father, adding she doesn’t know the precise details, but was told the brothers were shot while they were being chased.

“Apparently, they got boxed in and they got shot at. They got chased home.”

She said her godson was “on the shy side” while growing up.

“He was the baby in the family. Every time I did see him, he was a happy kid. This breaks my heart, and I’m really hurt for his dad and brother right now.”

Detectives from the homicide unit are investigating the shooting, which is Winnipeg’s sixth slaying of 2023. Phoenix is the youngest of the six victims. His is the first known shooting death in the city this year. Police have withheld the cause of death in some of the earlier killings.

Police did not reveal details of what happened before the shooting.

The WPS’s forensic unit remained at the scene in the King Edward neighbourhood Monday afternoon. Officers were also present at a collision between a van and a car in the 300 block of Sackville Street, a block west of Amherst. The WPS did not say if the two scenes were connected.

“Police covered a large area surrounding this incident, which is typical for a homicide or serious incident,” spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon wrote in an email.

“He was the baby in the family. Every time I did see him, he was a happy kid. This breaks my heart, and I’m really hurt for his dad and brother right now.”–Rolanda Thompson

No arrests have been announced.

On the 200 block of Amherst Street, not far from St. James Collegiate, a bullet hole could be seen in a window and there was an area of what appeared to be blood by an entryway surrounded by yellow police tape.

It was a frightening sight in a neighbourhood that doesn’t see violent crime often, one neighbour said.

“I’m shaking still,” he said.

When he was told the names of the victims, he remembered them to be “good young kids” he would see walking to school together.

“I’d never seen them in any trouble or anything,” he said. “It’s just really sad.”

“I’d never seen them in any trouble or anything. It’s just really sad.”–Neighbour

Another neighbour said the two boys and their father moved into the neighbourhood two years ago.

“This is unusual around here,” he said, adding his daughter heard the struggle and saw someone taking off in a truck, possibly causing an accident.

“The car accident and shooting didn’t make sense to me, so I figured someone chased them here,” he said.

His children went to school with both boys, he said, and remembered that when they first moved in, they would play basketball together every day.

“The boys were kind of quiet, they always played basketball in the back lane,” he said. “Their basketball net’s in the back lane right, now laying on the ground. It’s kind of sad.”

The situation is an “absolute nightmare” to imagine, he said.

“They went from playing basketball to this,” he said.

Jenness Moffatt, acting superintendent of St. James-Assiniboia School Division, said officials received “preliminary reports” of the incident.

“At this time, we are connecting with key stakeholders and expect to be able to provide more details on this matter as it becomes available,” she said in a statement.

McKinnon said police didn’t have any suspect information to release to the public as of Monday afternoon.

Officers are seeing more youth involved in gun-related crimes, she said.

“This includes youths in the commission of firearms offences, youths being injured by firearms and youths as victims of gun-related homicides,” she wrote. “Although this has not been confirmed (in Monday’s shooting), we know there often is a relationship between guns, gangs and drugs within the city.”

“They went from playing basketball to this.”–Neighbour

In the WPS 2021 annual report, Chief Danny Smyth wrote gun-related calls for service have increased by 27 per cent over the past five years.

Firearm “activity” is a serious concern that is being addressed through the gang and gun suppression strategy, he wrote.

The WPS received 1,669 gun-related calls in 2021, an increase of 15 per cent from 2020.

On average, there are five firearm-related calls per day, with guns accounting for four per cent of all violent crimes reported to police in 2021, according to the report.

Winnipeg community activist and outreach worker Mitch Bourbonniere was saddened to learn of the fatal shooting Monday, and expressed concerned about the few circumstances known thus far.

“It is both heartbreaking and concerning that anyone in our city loses their life to violence, let alone when there are children involved,” he said. “The age of the victim is extremely concerning to me. My heart goes out to their family. It concerns me that young people and children are out at that hour.”

“It is both heartbreaking and concerning that anyone in our city loses their life to violence, let alone when there are children involved.”–Mitch Bourbonniere

Homicides involving a child victim are rare in Manitoba, with a small number of incidents usually occurring each year.

Prior to Monday’s shooting, the most recent incident in Winnipeg involving a child victim occurred Sept. 30. A 16-year-old boy was found dead outside a home in the 500 block of Balmoral Street.

It is more common for a youth to be a suspect in a killing, a trend that has troubled police and activists such as Bourbonniere.

Last year, when there were a record 52 homicides in Winnipeg, police charged 12 teenagers in six of the slayings.

Anyone with information about Monday’s shooting is asked to call the homicide unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

— With files from Malak Abas

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching