City records lowest number of homicides in more than two decades in 2025 By: Erik Pindera Posted: 4:49 PM CST Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026 Last Modified: 5:20 PM CST Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 Updates

The number of homicides recorded in Winnipeg in 2025 was tied with 2010 for the lowest in more than 20 years.

Twenty-two people were slain within city limits last year, which ties 2025 with 2010 for the lowest number since 2003, when 18 people were killed..

The number also marks a near-50 per cent decrease from the 41 victims of fatal violence in 2024, according to Winnipeg Police Service data. The all-time high, police data shows, is 53 homicides, recorded in 2022.

WPS homicide detectives have made arrests in all but one of last year’s killings, a Free Press analysis shows.

Clinton Simard, 52, was found dead with injuries to his upper body on May 13 at a home on Austin Street between Selkirk and Pritchard avenues.

Patrol officers, who were called about apparent “suspicious circumstances” at the residence, called in homicide detectives, who have not announced arrests or provided further details.

University of Manitoba criminology professor Frank Cormier cautioned against reading deeply into reductions or spikes in homicides year-over-year.

“Homicide numbers are easily influenced by fairly minor changes in both the behaviour of the criminals who perpetrate them, and random chance,” said Cormier.

“Winnipeg homicides, many of them tend to be very chaotic, disorganized… many are these sad, messy cases where people are on drugs or they are highly intoxicated with alcohol, and what might be a minor disagreement in another context turns into somebody being stabbed to death.”

Cormier said he has not seen evidence of significant changes in the factors that drive violent crime and homicides, including drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, gang activity or major shifts in policing that could explain the large year-to-year decrease.

Assaults can easily turn into homicides.

“You could just as easily stab somebody and cause a fairly minor wound, as you could stab somebody and kill them,” Cormier said.

“How quickly does someone call for help? Were there witnesses? Was there somebody available who might call for help? How quickly did that help arrive? All those kinds of things.”

He said the reduction in fatal violence is “not necessarily a cause for greater concern, it’s not necessarily a cause for celebration.”

WPS Chief Gene Bowers isn’t sure what is behind the drop.

“There’s a lot of factors that go into that… homicides are really hard to predict, but violent crime is down,” Bowers said last month at a Winnipeg Police Board meeting.

“We’ve had a lot of initiatives, especially with… our integrated violent offender unit, that is taking those people who are the… most violent off the streets, so that may have been a contributing factor.”

Bowers said homicides are trending downward across Canada.

“There could be other societal factors that are in play here… it seems to be a trend,” he said. “We’re ahead of the trend here in Winnipeg with the reduction in homicides across Canada.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca