WPS partners with non-profit to put suspected killer on display

Giant images of one of Canada’s most wanted men is staring down motorists near Winnipeg’s Wolseley neighbourhood.

Two brightly-coloured billboards — near Portage Avenue and Lipton Street — display the face of Tresor Horimbere, whom city police named as a suspect in a brazen shooting that left a young soccer star dead after a Canada Africa Cup of Nations game in July 2024.

For the first time, the Winnipeg Police Service has partnered with a Quebec-based non-profit, the Bolo Program, which installed the billboards and is offering up to $100,000 in rewards for tips that lead to Horimbere’s capture.

“It’s all about making sure people are on the lookout and that people who may have something to say, say something,” program director Max Langlois told the Free Press.

“It’s also implicitly about making the world smaller for Tresor Horimbere.”

Horimbere, who was 22 last February when police named him as a suspect in the death of Mohamed Yusuf Abdullahi, 22, has been on the run for 18 months.

The billboards are part of a larger campaign utilizing social media posts and traditional advertising to broadcast Horimbere’s likeness across Canada. The Bolo Program has listed him as the No. 4 most wanted fugitive in the country, based on an assessment by its review committee and conversations with law enforcement, Langlois said.

The committee weighed factors surrounding the crime Horimbere is accused of, including that the 22-year-old victim was struck by a hail of bullets in front of what WPS previously said was roughly 100 witnesses.

A friend and a community leader who spoke about Abdullahi during a memorial service after the shooting described him as a talented soccer player who arrived in Canada in 2014, after escaping civil war in Somalia with his family.

Police believe the slaying, which occurred in the parking lot of the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex shortly before midnight on July 13, was targeted and may have been connected to gangs and illicit drugs.

Investigators arrested two other men in connection to the shooting. Crown prosecutors later stayed charges against one of the suspects.

In Winnipeg, two static billboards were erected almost back-to-back at the Portage Avenue location on Dec. 22, where they will remain until Jan. 23. Digital billboards were similarly installed on Dec. 15 near Waverley Street and Clarence Avenue, and at Pembina Highway near Harrow Street. Those will remain in place until Jan. 16.

Photos of Horimbere are also being pushed in social media advertisements elsewhere in Canada, including in Ontario, near Ottawa, where investigators believe the suspect may have fled to evade arrest.

The effort is funded by the non-profit Stéphan Crétier Foundation, which founded the Bolo Program in 2018.

BOLO is a law enforcement acronym that stands for “be on the lookout.”

Langlois said WPS identified Portage Avenue as a “strategic location” for the billboards.

“I don’t know why, we don’t ask,” he said. “The Bolo Program only works with public information, so we don’t want to be part of the investigation and we don’t want to know anything that’s confidential.”

The digital billboards further south were selected simply because advertising space was available there, Langlois said.

WPS Const. Dani McKinnon said to her knowledge, city police have not used billboard campaigns to ask for tips in the past.

WPS declined to provide updates on the investigation Monday.

The police service would not say whether the campaign has resulted in any tips to aid investigators or why they selected Portage Avenue as a strategic location, citing the ongoing homicide investigation.

Langlois also could not confirm whether the billboards have directly led to new information, but said police have received tips related to the investigation since the Bolo Program placed Horimbere on its most wanted list on Oct. 8.

Annette Colbert, who lives near the Portage Avenue billboards, said she was not aware of the search for Horimbere before they were installed.

“It’s definitely eye-catching. I drive by here a lot on my way back from school and I did notice this yesterday,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this.”

The up to $100,000 reward for information leading to Horimbere’s capture is among the highest currently offered by the Bolo Program, and reserved for the most serious criminals. The amount of money tipsters can receive is based on the type of information they provide and the outcome of the investigation. The reward is available until June 9, Langlois said.

“It’s always about the level of danger a suspect poses to our communities,” he said. “To anyone who knows — or simply may know — something, right now is the time to say something. There is a big incentive that is currently offered… (but) it’s not going to be there forever.”

People with information about the case should contact WPS.

— with files from Erik Pindera

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca