News briefs for Friday, December 30, 2022

A vacant home on Selkirk Avenue was destroyed in a fire early Friday.

Fire crews were sent to the vacant, two-storey house in the 800 block of Selkirk shortly after 4 a.m. and used an aerial ladder to battle the blaze and protect neighbouring homes.

Both neighbouring homes were evacuated.

The vacant house is expected to be a complete loss, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said in a news release.

Selkirk Avenue is closed between Arlington and Sinclair streets. Firefighters are expected to be at the scene for quite a while, the WFPS said.

The Winnipeg Jets have signed one of their most recent draft picks to a three-year entry-level contract.

Forward Danny Zhilkin was selected in the third round (77th) overall last summer. The 19-year-old was born in Russian but has been raised in Canada. He is currently playing with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League, where he has 25 points (11G, 14A) in 23 games this year.

Zhilkin would make US $913,333 at the NHL level under his deal. This is his third season of junior hockey, with one more year of eligibility remaining. Overall, he has 95 points (41G, 54A) in 149 OHL games.

RCMP are investigating a man’s death in Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation early Friday as a homicide.

Wasagaming RCMP were called to a home in the First Nation just after 12 a.m. with a report of an unresponsive man.

When they arrived, officers found a 54-year-old man from the community dead.

Major crimes RCMP officers are investigating the death as a homicide. The First Nation is about 43 kilometres southwest of Riding Mountain National Park.

RCMP in The Pas are searching for witnesses to a recent stabbing on a highway in a rural area north of the town.

Mounties in the small northern town were called to the local hospital after a man was admitted with stab wounds at about 10:40 p.m. Dec. 22.

RCMP said the victim, a 49-year-old man from Saskatchewan, was driving southbound on Highway 10 about 50 kilometres north of The Pas when a vehicle drove into his vehicle multiple times from behind. He veered into a ditch. As the victim tried to climb from the ditch, at least two people assaulted and stabbed him multiple times, Mounties said. He’s since been released from hospital.

RCMP said they don’t think the attack was random and have no description of the assailants or vehicle, but ask anyone who was driving in the area that night, or who might know what led to the attack, to call the detachment at 204-627-6204 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.