Man stabbed, robbed of bike in random attack downtown

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This article was published 31/05/2024 (494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police are searching for a suspect after a man was stabbed by a stranger and robbed of his bike downtown in broad daylight.

The incident happened on Portage Avenue in front of the University of Winnipeg at about 8:45 a.m. Thursday.

A passenger on a nearby bus called 911 after witnessing the man get stabbed by another man, who then rode away on the victim’s bicycle.

“It was the tail end of rush hour … and this passenger on the bus just really happened to (see it) — it was lucky that he saw it,” said Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon.

A driver passing by who witnessed the attack also called police.

Police officers, who were nearby, rushed to the scene and found the victim “bleeding profusely.”

Police gave the man first aid, including using chest seal bandage for his puncture wounds. The victim, in his 30s, was transported to hospital in unstable condition and later upgraded to stable.

McKinnon said major crimes detectives are working with the victim and obtaining surveillance footage, so she did not yet have full details of the attack.

“Based on what I’ve read (in police reports), he wasn’t riding the bike, he didn’t get pushed over, he was just in the area, had the bike with him,” she said. “He was approached, he was confronted.”

Bicycle robberies are not uncommon.

“Unfortunately, this is something that we have seen increase in the past few years and overall we have talked about violent crime and youth crime, but we are in bike season, and we often talk about thefts of bicycles,” McKinnon said.

“Not only does that include taking bicycles but it does include strong-arm robberies or robberies with weapons as well, and subsequent thefts of the bikes.”

She said such robberies can play out in moments.

“It’s extremely disturbing, the lengths of violence people will go to to obtain property,” McKinnon said. “It seems that it’s not enough to just threaten somebody with a weapon … they’re not just not threatening them, they’re not just brandishing a weapon, but within a matter of seconds they’ve stabbed a person and taken the bike.”

Police have not indicated whether they’ve identified a suspect; a description of the assailant hasn’t been released.

McKinnon said the suspect would be charged with robbery, with other charges likely but depending on what else detectives are able to determine.

Police have asked anyone with information to contact investigators at 204-986-6219, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477 (TIPS) or winnipegcrimestoppers.org.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca