Portage Avenue stabbing victim staggered into nearby store for help

A 46-year-old man stabbed on Portage Avenue Wednesday afternoon is in hospital after staggering, bloodied, into a nearby dollar store.

Police said the man was confronted by several people on the 300 block of Portage shortly before 6 p.m. and was stabbed with an unknown weapon. He was helped by people inside the store until police and paramedics arrived.

The man was rushed to hospital in unstable condition but was later upgraded to stable, the Winnipeg Police Service said.

WPS Const. Claude Chancy said Friday that police were still attempting to speak with the victim, and it was not yet clear if the attack was random. No arrests have been made.

Viv Ketchum, who works as the Indigenous ambassador for Impact Security and was stationed inside the Dollarama location at 295 Portage, said she was in the rear of the shop when she heard a loud “groaning and moaning.”

She ran to the front and saw a woman kneeling over a man lying in a pool of blood, a red coat placed on his body.

“I ran over and I told the woman: ‘I know first aid,’” Ketchum said, noting a co-worker called 911. “I applied pressure to the wound… he was scared and I held onto his hand and I tried to calm him down. That guy was holding my hand so tight; it felt like hours before the police came, but they were there within minutes.”

She said the wound appeared small but there was a lot of blood in and outside of the store. As officers applied a chest seal to the wound. Ketchum said she tried to keep the area clear.

She said Dollarama is co-operating with police by providing store security video, and she hopes anyone with information about the incident contacts police.

Several mayoral candidates expressed concern after learning of the attack.

“I’m grateful for the people who stepped in to help and for the police and emergency responders who were on scene quickly,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said.

“This reinforces why we’ve been adding more police officers, more safety officers and working with the province to strengthen the Downtown Community Safety Partnership. We need a strong and visible safety presence downtown.”

The first promise of Kevin Klein’s mayoral campaign was to appoint a crime-reduction task force that would study ways to make the city safer. Klein reiterated his promise to make Winnipeg “Canada’s safest city” if he wins the election on Oct. 28.

”There is no reason a stabbing in broad daylight should be occurring on one of our busiest streets, or at all,” Klein said in a statement. businesses and the people of Winnipeg deserve better,” Klein said in a statement.

Candidate Mike Vogiatzakis said the incident reminded him of his brother, Kyriakos Vogiatzakis, who was killed in January 2024 after a violent argument outside of his restaurant. He said the incident occurred at about the same time of day as Wednesday’s stabbing. Curtis Dalebozik was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter.

“Police need to establish what happened in this case. In the meantime, my message to the victim’s family is simple: I know how frightening this is, you deserve answers and you deserve to feel safe in this city,” he said.

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca