High school students attacked, kids playing near inner-city drop-in threatened in separate machete incidents By: Chris Kitching Posted: 3:55 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 21, 2024 Last Modified: 8:45 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 21, 2024 Updates

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A group of children was threatened and two high school students escaped serious injuries in two separate machete attacks — the latest in a string of violent incidents related to the long-bladed weapons in the city.

The high school students used their backpacks to defend themselves from an attack by another student last Wednesday.

And on Saturday, the children fled from a machete-wielding man near Rossbrook House, an inner-city drop-in centre, police said.

“They said they were shaken up, but they are completely fine now,” Justine Carandang, program and operations manager at Rossbrook House, said of the children involved in the incident.

“I’m sure it affects them in ways they don’t understand yet.”

Carandang said the incident happened when a group of about eight kids were waiting to get rides home from staff, after spending time in the facility at Ross Avenue and Sherbrook Street.

City police said the suspect was swinging the machete in the air when he approached the children at about 7:30 p.m.

Carandang, who spoke with the kids Sunday, said the armed man went toward a 12-year-old girl, prompting a boy in the group to step forward.

“He came up to see what was going on, and I guess that was enough to warn off the (suspect) a little bit,” she said. “It was random. This kid was much older than our kids.”

Carandang said the children ran back to Rossbrook House to alert staff, who locked the doors and called police as per the drop-in centre’s policy.

General patrol and tactical support team officers responded to the area. A suspect was arrested and a machete seized in the 600 block of Pacific Avenue nearby, said police.

Officers spoke to the girl, who was not physically injured.

Bronxton Strong, 18, is charged with assault with a weapon. He was held in custody.

“This is a random encounter,” said Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy. “The victim felt fear she was going to suffer injury at the hands of the accused, which still forms basis for the assault charge.”

“The victim felt fear she was going to suffer injury at the hands of the accused, which still forms basis for the assault charge.”–WPS spokesman Const. Claude Chancy

Carandang said incidents like this are rare for Rossbrook House and the children who make use of its facilities, many of whom play in the field while waiting for rides home at night.

“I guess is it was kind of wrong place, wrong time,” she said. “The kids were just doing what they usually do — playing in the field.”

Carandang said violence appears to have increased in the wider neighbourhood, which she attributed to an “uptick in drugs and alcohol.”

Elsewhere in Winnipeg, outside Nelson McIntyre Collegiate, parents expressed concerns after learning two students were attacked by a teen with a machete last Wednesday.

A 15-year-old boy and 18-year-old man suffered only minor injuries because their clothing and backpacks protected them from machete strikes, said police.

School staff intervened and stopped the fight. The suspect fled the scene.

Police said the 17-year-old girl, who was arrested Saturday and released from custody, is facing two counts of assault with a weapon and a single charge of possession of a weapon.

School administrators sent an email to parents on Monday, confirming the incident occurred at Nelson McIntyre and involved one student who attacked two others.

“Of course, I was thinking of the safety of my daughter,” said one man, whose eldest child is a Grade 11 student at the school.

“I was just imagining, ‘OK, it’s 11 a.m., what is my daughter doing at that time? Is she in class?’”

The man, who asked to be identified as a “concerned parent,” said he learned about the incident from the email, which he received at 12:18 p.m. — around the same time the WPS issued a news release detailing the incident.

He questioned why parents were not notified sooner and said he was waiting for his child to be released from class at 3:40 p.m., so he could ask her about the incident.

The Free Press spoke to four other parents who voiced similar concerns. Two said they planned to ask their child about the incident and contact the school for more information.

A spokesperson for the Louis Riel School Division said officials met with school administrators and staff Monday to debrief about the situation and discuss ongoing supports.

“This was indeed a concerning incident, and we’re relieved that no one was seriously injured. It’s important to note that this type of violence with a weapon is a rare occurrence in our school community,” communications manager Emmalee Blackadar said in an email.

Last month, police launched an investigation after high school students were involved in an armed assault that sent a 16-year-old boy to hospital in unstable condition.

Shelley Amos, superintendent of Pembina Trails School Division, acknowledged some of those involved were students from Oak Park High School in Charleswood.

Administrators from the high school notified parents about the incident, which occurred off of school property, three days later.

In another machete-related incident, police said a 32-year-old woman was Tasered and arrested by officers, after she waved a hunting-style knife in a threatening manner near Selkirk Avenue and Salter Street Saturday afternoon.

“Officers found the suspect still waving the knife in the air, and a conducted energy weapon was utilized to gain compliance and safely place her in handcuffs,” Chancy said.

No injuries were reported.

On Sunday, a 36-year-old man allegedly tried to stab officers responding to a break-in at a home in the 1100 block of Alfred Avenue on Sunday.

Community safety activist Mitch Bourbonniere, a social worker who helps at-risk youth, was alarmed by the incidents.

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“It’s very worrisome to me, because these incidents are random and unprovoked,” he said. “It puts everybody at danger — the public and even the (armed) person themselves.”

The Manitoba government recently tabled a bill that would restrict the sale of long-bladed knives, machetes and swords to people over 18 with photo identification.

Stores would be required to securely store the weapons to prevent theft, and keep retail sales records for at least two years.

—With files from Tyler Searle

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.