Man charged after explosive incidents in Westwood

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This article was published 08/09/2023 (779 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man is in police custody, after allegedly detonating multiple explosives outside a home in the Westwood neighbourhood.

On three occasions between June 21 and Aug. 21, police were sent to a home in the 100 block of Wordsworth Way to probe suspicious circumstances involving explosive devices, Winnipeg Police Service Const. Jason Michalyshen said by phone Friday.

Investigators believe the accused, a 30-year-old Winnipeg man, was involved in a dispute with the homeowner.

Some of the devices were detonated, but nobody was injured, Michalyshen said.

Officers arrested a suspect in a vehicle near the 3600 block of Portage Avenue on Thursday. Investigators later obtained a warrant and searched a home in the 200 block of Harcourt Street, in St. James.

“Various items associated with manufacturing explosive devices were located and seized,” police said in a release.

Aaron Colby Lavallee has been charged with possession of cocaine and methamphetamine, three counts of causing an explosion likely to cause bodily harm, death or serious damage; three counts of unlawful possession of explosives and 13 counts of failing to comply with conditions of a release order.

Provincial court records show Lavallee pleaded guilty to possessing stolen property under $5,000 in January 2022. In 2013, he was convicted of drunk driving.

Residents who live near the Wordsworth Way home reported finding fragments of explosive devices littering the neighbourhood, Michalyshen said.

“They would hear loud bangs, pops or even the sound of shots when these devices were detonated. Maybe initially they didn’t witness it (explode) but they did hear something,” he said about the initial police reports.

A man, who asked to withhold his name, said his wife found a suspicious piece of metal on their property hours after hearing what sounded like fireworks around 2 a.m. on Aug. 21.

“She was cutting the grass in the backyard there and came across what looked like a small portion of what would be a pipe bomb,” her husband said, describing a piece of steel pipe roughly a half-inch in diameter and a few inches long.

One end of the pipe fragment featured a threaded cap, while the other appeared to have been blown apart.

“I was sitting there looking at it thinking, ‘How on god’s green earth would you put something like this together?’” he said.

He initially thought it could be part of a blown transformer but later realized it might be the remnants of a bomb.

When the man contacted the Winnipeg Police Service, investigators retrieved the piece of metal and took statements from them, he said.

“I was concerned. This is normally a really quiet neighbourhood,” he said, noting an elementary school is less than a block away.

Michalyshen said the fragment could have been part of a bomb.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca