Injuries reported after police pursuit on Broadway

Winnipeg police are investigating a “serious incident” in which people were injured following a police pursuit near Broadway and Young Street Friday afternoon.

Police said the scene would remain secured as officers investigate. No details about the number or severity of injuries were released.

Broadway was closed between Furby and Young streets until further notice and motorists were asked to avoid the area.

Shaelyn Desmarais McLeod, whose car sustained minor damage, said she witnessed the end of the police pursuit.

“I was actually in my apartment room and I heard a really loud tire screech and then I looked out the window, saw lots of smoke, and I heard a man, presumably a police officer, yell: ‘get on the f—cking ground.’”

When she went to check on her car, she said she saw a man getting arrested. Officers were trying to remove a woman from a green SUV that was “severely damaged” and its airbags had deployed.

“I also just saw devastation everywhere,” she said.

She said one man had blood on his face, and a second man appeared to have tape on his face.

“It’s just really sad to see, and it gives everyone a big shock, so there’s a huge emotional investment involved, more than a physical one,” she said.

Desmarais McLeod said she’s frustrated by criminal incidents in her neighbourhood; she referenced a recent drug raid at a home on Young Street in which several people were arrested.

“It’s severely disrupting. Not even to just people who live here, but to people who go around this area to get home,” she said.

“There’s always people walking, always people here, and it’s a community, and it’s a community being affected by violence all the time. It’s really sad.”