Accused in Burger King slashing has history of meth use, violent crimes

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A Winnipeg man arrested for a daytime knife attack at an Osborne Village burger restaurant Tuesday has a history of drug-fuelled knife crimes, court records show.

Ethan Joseph Muswagon, 25, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in the parking lot area behind the Burger King at 244 Osborne St., the same restaurant where he is accused of slashing a male diner in the upper body a day earlier.

“General patrol officers were definitely on the lookout for this individual. We had identified him at that point, and we were making every effort to locate him,” Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said Thursday. “These officers spotted him and took him into custody.”

Michalyshen said officers don’t often see wanted suspects return to the area of the crime the next day.

“(The accused) made a bad decision the day before, so why wouldn’t they make a bad decision the second day?” he said, adding he did not know specific details about the case.

Muswagon has been charged with aggravated assault, robbery, failing to comply with conditions of an undertaking and two counts of failing to comply with a probation order. He is in custody.

Police were called about the violent attack at about 10 a.m. Tuesday and found a 45-year-old man bleeding from a serious upper-body injury. He was transported to hospital in critical condition and later upgraded to stable.

Police said Wednesday the men were acquaintances and were involved in a dispute before the violence.

In September 2021, Muswagon pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a dangerous weapon after he was seen in an “agitated state” armed with an axe and chasing people outside the Millennium Library. Muswagon, who pleaded guilty to two additional counts of failing to comply with a release order, was sentenced to just over 10 months in jail.

Just over a year later, Muswagon was sentenced to two years custody for sexually assaulting a teenage girl as she walked home in Norway House in 2019. According to court records, he pulled the girl into the bushes when the assault was interrupted by a passerby and Muswagon ran off.

Muswagon, who pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of possessing a dangerous weapon in connection to a later arrest in Winnipeg, said he carried a machete and knives with him for protection while living on the street, according to a pre-sentence report provided to court.

According to the report, Muswagon lives with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and used alcohol and drugs, including methamphetamine, to cope.

Muswagon “acknowledged when he uses meth a bad side of him ‘comes out’ that causes him to commit crimes,” said the report.

A 2016 forensic report found “severe impairment” to his intellectual functioning.

“It will be imperative for (Muswagon) to access counselling to help him gain the tools and knowledge to cope in healthy ways,” said the pre-sentence report.

In the year prior to being sentenced, he was hospitalized twice after overdosing on drugs.

“You are really on borrowed time at this point,” provincial court Judge Dale Schille told him. “No one wants that. You really need to break that cycle and you aren’t going to be able to do that unless you take advantage of the help that is offered.”

Schille sentenced Muswagon to an additional two years supervised probation, including an order that he participate in counselling as required, and prohibited him from possessing weapons for 10 years.

Most recently, Muswagon was sentenced last August to 10 months in jail after he participated in a three-on-one attack of another prisoner at Brandon Correctional Centre.

In 2011, his mother Adelaide Muswagon spoke to the Free Press about the dangers of drinking while pregnant and her son’s struggles as a child with FASD.

“Today, I regret taking that first drink,” she said. “I can’t change things or take them back. I already harmed my child. I just want to tell others, ‘If you do get pregnant, don’t drink.’ Get help for yourself.”

— with files from Adam Treusch

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca