News briefs for Thursday, November 10, 2022

A police officer and a former officer have been charged after a gun was fired inside the Springfield Police Service office last year.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba said investigators found reasonable grounds to believe criminal offences had occurred. 
Const. Jesse Zillman and Tyler Froese, a former officer with the police service, have each been issued a summons to appear in Beausejour provincial court on Dec. 6 on charges of careless use of a firearm and obstruction of justice.

No one was injured when the gun was fired.

The incident involving an on-duty officer happened on Feb. 14, 2021, but the IIU was not told about it until April 28, 2022 — more than a year later. The IIU announced it was investigating the incident on May 2 of this year.

A pedestrian was killed while trying to cross Highway 9 in the RM of West St. Paul on Wednesday evening.

RCMP said the 56-year-old man from Little Grand Rapids First Nation was hit by a southbound SUV south of Allenford Drive at about 6:30 p.m. He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The driver — a 21-year-old Winnipeg woman — and her 23-year-old male passenger were not injured and are co-operating with the investigation, RCMP said.

Manitoba has recorded a spike in deaths related to COVID-19.

Twenty-four more Manitobans have died of COVID-19, according to the province’s weekly epidemiological report, published today for the week of Oct. 30 to Nov. 5. Eleven deaths were recorded the week of Oct. 23-29.

A total of 2,256 Manitobans have died of COVID-19.

There were 110 hospitalizations related to the virus, including eight ICU admissions, last week. That’s down slightly from 116 hospitalizations and seven ICU admissions between Oct. 23 and Oct. 29.

The province’s test positivity rate was 25 per cent, down slightly from 28.7 per cent the previous week.

A teenage boy has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a man in Canupawakpa Dakota Nation this summer.

The 15-year-old was arrested Wednesday in connection with the death of 36-year-old Mathew Brown, whose body was found in a home on the morning of July 9. Police said at the time that the victim had been assaulted.

Brown and the teen were known to each other, RCMP said today. The boy remains in custody.