Police kill hostage-taker linked to trucker’s slaying Tactical team rescues 19-year-old woman held at knifepoint in West Broadway apartment after failed negotiations; two other adults, small child held earlier By: Erik Pindera Posted: 1:10 PM CST Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 Last Modified: 7:53 PM CST Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 Updates

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This article was published 29/12/2023 (619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A person of interest in the slaying of a British Columbia trucker was shot dead by Winnipeg police officers after reportedly taking three adults and a child hostage in a West Broadway apartment suite Thursday.

The 52-year-old man was allegedly holding a 19-year-old woman hostage when he was shot multiple times in the Manitoba Housing complex at 25 Furby St. late Thursday afternoon, Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth told reporters Friday.

Smyth said homicide detectives suspect the man was linked to the killing of 34-year-old Farah Mohamud, a truck driver from Delta, B.C., whose body was discovered on Boxing Day in a suite on the fifth floor of the same apartment complex, which is between Westminster and Cornish avenues.

“It could be either/or,” Smyth said, when asked whether the man was a suspect or just someone police wanted to interview.

“Sometimes we don’t know until we have an opportunity to speak to somebody, but he’s certainly a person of interest for us, there’s the potential he was a suspect.”

Mohamud was reported missing Dec. 23, after making a delivery in the city. His truck was found abandoned in the parking lot of the nearby Sherbrook Inn and beer vendor after his death was discovered Tuesday.

A 23-year-old resident of the building, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said police officers had been constantly present on the fifth floor since Tuesday, when the slaying victim was found.

On Wednesday, the resident observed a marked police forensics truck and an unmarked van parked outside, as officers entered and exited the building with bags of items.

Police were again called to the building at about 1:45 p.m. Thursday after a woman was taken hostage by a man, who was armed with a knife in the hallway on the third floor, said Smyth.

The suspect barricaded himself and the woman inside a suite, where a 33-year-old woman, a 23-year-old man and a three-year-old girl were also held hostage, the police chief said. The two women and the toddler are residents in the building.

Police called in a senior officer to command the incident, as well as crisis negotiators and the long-gun armed tactical support team.

At 2:18 p.m., the 33-year-old woman and the child were either released by the hostage-taker or managed to escape by themselves through a hallway door.

The 23-year-old man escaped via the suite’s balcony a few minutes later. Smyth said the male hostage scaled down to a second-floor balcony, where tactical officers got him inside.

Third-floor resident Dennis Scullard said he heard screaming, followed by footsteps and banging on the door of a suite down the hall between 2:15 and 2:30.

“I realized it was police officers, the way they were banging on the door… shortly after, they had the battering ram and the officer took a bunch of swipes at the door, and ended up taking the doorknob out and the lock out,” said Scullard, 44.

One officer shot a Taser electroshock weapon through the hole in the door, but it appeared to be ineffective; Scullard, who was leaning out of his apartment, heard a man laughing, then telling police “they missed.”

“Shortly after that, he came out of the suite with his arm around the girl and a knife to her throat. He ended up backing up back into the suite,” Scullard said.

“Shortly after that, he came out of the suite with his arm around the girl and a knife to her throat.”–Dennis Scullard

Smyth said police are uncertain whether the dead suspect knew the hostages, or why they were held, but that the man was known to frequent the building and could have been acquainted with residents.

“As the afternoon progressed… there were elevated concerns about the safety of the hostage and that was based on some of the actions of the male hostage-taker,” he said, declining to elaborate.

Tactical support team officers moved in at about 5:10 p.m., Smyth said.

That time was confirmed by the building resident who didn’t want her name published.

“Exactly at, like, 5:10 is when the gunshots went off. I don’t know if they exchanged fire, but I know that they did kill somebody because they took a body bag out,” said the woman, who was with her young daughter at the time.

“I heard the shots and we dropped to the floor immediately, we didn’t second-guess anything; we dropped to the floor and waited for it all to stop. I barricaded my door just in case.”

“I heard the shots and we dropped to the floor immediately, we didn’t second-guess anything.”

Smyth, who wouldn’t say how many officers fired their weapons, said the suspect was shot multiple times and died at the scene. The hostage wasn’t hurt.

The resident said she saw officers leading a woman out of the building shortly after the gunfire stopped.

The province’s civilian police oversight agency, the Independent Investigation Unit, is reviewing the fatal shooting. Smyth said that agency’s investigators will notify the man’s family about his death.

He would not comment on the circumstances that led police to shoot the man, citing the IIU probe.

“These are pretty dynamic situations, where there’s a barricaded situation with a hostage-taking,” he said. “I’m really not in a position to speak to the moment-to-moment that the team entered the suite.”

Smyth said the dead man, who police have identified, has an “extensive” criminal record for violence and weapons offences, and was subject to several weapons prohibitions at the time of the hostage-taking. His name wasn’t publicly released.

Homicide detectives are still investigating Mohamud’s death and have asked anyone with information to call 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

Smyth said police believe the two incidents are linked, but are not sure how.

“We don’t know the exact relationship there, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence… clearly, we’re dealing with circumstances that are leaving us with the same questions you have,” Smyth said.

Originally from Somalia, Mohamud worked part time for Reef Trucking Enterprises in Surrey, B.C., and as a taxi driver in Burnaby to support his family, said a trucking industry source with knowledge of the victim’s itinerary.

The source said Mohamud made a morning delivery of a load of desserts to a customer in Winnipeg’s Shaughnessy Heights neighbourhood on Dec. 22.

He drove to the Flying J Travel Centre in Headingley to rest, arriving at about 9:30 a.m., according to the source. GPS history showed the truck leaving the truck stop later in the afternoon and being driven to the downtown area, but the driver did not register his identity in an on-board system, the source said, adding the truck made some “loops” of roads in the West Broadway area before stopping on Furby.

The driving activity was “unusual” because, in part, Mohamud had no reason to go to the neighbourhood and was not familiar with the area, the source said, adding Mohamud was supposed to pick up a load of goods in Winnipeg Saturday morning, but did not arrive.

The truck’s GPS history was given to investigators.

Mohamud’s loved ones are devastated by his death and upset by speculation on social media, the source said.

“He was the nicest guy. He was a family man,” the source said. “He worked every day for his family. We’re trying to figure out what to do for them.”

— with files from Chris Kitching

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca