‘I’m not letting this stop me’

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This article was published 21/02/2025 (371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lester Valdez made a promise to himself moments after a bullet went through his right side and lodged into his spine.

“As soon as I got hit, I told myself, ‘I’m not dying here,’” the 29-year-old Winnipegger said from his Health Sciences Centre hospital bed Thursday morning, where he’s been since the early hours of Feb. 6.

Valdez and a friend were out bar-hopping that evening and wound up at the Moonlight Lounge in Osborne Village after hours. His friend knew the owner and they were among a few others drinking in the shuttered bar.

Valdez described hearing two men arguing with two women inside the club. When he and his friend tried to break up the argument, a scuffle ensued.

“I don’t know what triggered the violence, really. I have no idea. We just told them to go their separate ways, and then somehow they got offended,” Valdez said.

“We just tried to break everything up and that’s when I got shot.”

Valdez focused on staying conscious and putting pressure on the wound until help arrived.

Winnipeg police were sent to the lounge at about 4:20 a.m. and gave Valdez emergency medical care and applied a chest seal. He was rushed to hospital in unstable condition.

The suspects fled before officers arrived. The gun has not been found.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon had no update on the investigation Wednesday. Officers still needed to conduct several interviews, she said.

The owner of Moonlight Lounge could not be reached Thursday. The bar has not been active on social media since the day before the incident.

Valdez has a bullet hole on his right side and some stitches on his lower back — where surgeons inserted and fused two steel rods to his spine during a five-hour surgery.

He recently lost feeling in his right foot and deals with shooting pain down his legs, but he can move his limbs and take small steps. After his stay at HSC is over he’ll be moved to a rehabilitation facility.

Doctors told Valdez if the bullet hit his spine an inch higher, he would have been left paralyzed.

Friends and family have streamed in and out of his hospital room to visit with balloons and snacks.

Valdez is eager to get back to his full-time job as a coach at the Taylor Tennis Club, where he’s been teaching for five years and playing since he was 11.

“I’m stubborn as hell, so I’ll just keep pushing and keep fighting to get back on the court. I’m not letting this stop me,” he said.

The club’s owners are among nearly 200 people to donate to a GoFundMe campaign to fund Valdez’s recovery. The ownership group chipped in $5,000.

As of Thursday afternoon the campaign had raised $31,558 of its $35,000 goal.

George Kylar, Valdez’s former tennis instructor, raised $600 during a recent tournament, one Valdez has won multiple times.

“I thought it would be a nice gesture for him. He’s well-known in the tennis community, he’s a nice young man … wouldn’t hurt anybody,” Kylar said.

Valdez was overwhelmed with the financial and moral support from the tennis community and said he’s focused on healing so he can continue to give back to the sport.

“I can’t do any of it without them,” he said.

Valdez said he worries for his 11-year-old son who goes out to socialize with friends, and himself for when he wants to go out after a long night of coaching.

“This is Winnipeg, we’re kind of known for stabbings so I’m kind of always prepared for that but I never expected a gun,” he said. “You can run away from a knife, you can run away from a fight, but you can’t really run away from a gun.”

Weapons crimes have increased in recent years, according to data from Winnipeg police. In its 2023 annual report, police-reported weapons crimes increased to 5,228 incidents in 2023, up from 4,884 incidents in 2022.

Crimes involving firearms accounted for 470 incidents in 2023, up from 445 in 2022.

Despite the circumstances and a long road to recovery, Valdez considers the incident a second lease on life and urges politicians to address gun violence in the city.

“I can’t tell (politicians) to do their job, but something needs to be done … it’s senseless violence,” he said.

Police asked anyone with information or video relevant to the shooting to contact major crimes unit investigators at 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477 (TIPS).

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca