Accused in hatchet attack served time for role in machete incident

The man accused in a recent random assault with a hatchet on Ellice Avenue was jailed last fall for his role in a violent robbery with a machete in the North End in 2023.

Major crimes detectives arrested 20-year-old Joshua Clifford Walter Bear and charged him with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon and failing to comply with a probation order in relation to the Nov. 17 incident.

The victim, a 26-year-old man, was walking east on Ellice Avenue near Simcoe Street around 12:30 p.m. when a man walking in the opposite direction passed by him. The suspect ran at him from behind and struck him in the head with a hatchet. The victim was rushed to hospital.

In September 2024, Bear was sent to jail for two random robberies and breaching a court order. In one of the attacks, a teenage boy received a machete wound to the head that has left a scar.

“People in the city should be able to walk on the street and not have to be subject to… a random violent event like this. It’s not rare that we hear of these incidents, and they seem to be becoming more and more common, at least as it’s reported in the newspaper,” Crown prosecutor David Gilleta said at Bear’s sentencing hearing.

“There seems to be a significant problem with attacks with weapons in the city, on random people, often by people who are youthful as well. So it’s a situation where there needs to be some form of message with respect to Mr. Bear,” he told court.

Around noon on April 27, 2023, Bear and a teenage accomplice were walking on Aberdeen Avenue between Aikins and Charles streets in the North End, Gilleta told court.

A teenage boy, who was carrying an old computer monitor that his school allowed him to take home, was walking down Aberdeen.

The teen was listening to music on his headphones, when he felt a tap on his shoulder, said Gilleta.

When he turned around and got hit in the forehead with a machete.

It was not agreed in court which of the two robbers swung the weapon. It was also unclear whether the pair made off with any of the victim’s items.

The victim ran to a friend’s home nearby, and paramedics and police were called.

Officers arrested Bear after a foot chase.

The victim’s skull was fractured; 12 sutures were required to close the wound.

Earlier that day, Bear and his accomplice approached a man near the Sport for Life Centre on Pacific Avenue downtown and demanded his backpack and cellphone.

That robbery was captured by a camera on a nearby Winnipeg Transit bus. Bear and the teen made off with the man’s property.

Provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson handed Bear a three-year jail sentence for the two robberies and breach of release order, minus time served, along with the two years of supervised probation.

He had pleaded guilty to the pair of robberies and to breaching an earlier bail order by carrying a weapon. He didn’t apply for bail after his arrest.

Gilleta told court Bear was taken from his parents at birth, owing to their alcohol and drug dependency, and placed in the care of a child and family services agency.

Bear dropped out of school in Grade 7, although he completed Grade 10 at a non-traditional school, said his lawyer, Matthew Raffey.

The lawyer said Bear hoped to finish high school, find work and parent his young child.

He remained in child welfare until he turned 18. At the time of the robberies, Bear was in independent living, with the support of a CFS agency, Raffey told court. He has a number of impairments.

Raffey said Bear hoped for some form of social work for adults who’ve aged out of care, if he was no longer able to access CFS extended care after his sentence.

Raffey told court that drug and alcohol abuse was a significant factor in Bear’s criminal behavious. He had been drinking extremely heavily one day before the machete attack.

Court was told he began drinking at age 10.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca