News briefs for Thursday, April 20, 2023

Valour already out of national championship playdowns

6:46 AM

Winnipeg’s professional soccer team is “one and done” in the preliminary round of the Canadian championship.

Valour FC suffered an ugly 3-1 defeat to the TSS Rovers, a semi-pro team from B.C., on Wednesday night in Burnaby to be immediately eliminated from the single-knockout event.

The Rovers were the better squad all night, jumping out to a 3-0 lead before Anthony Novak’s goal on a penalty kick in the 88th minute put Valour on the board.

Midfielder Raphael Ohin was hurt late in the contest and did not return.

Valour resumes regular play in the Canadian Premier League on Saturday in its home opener at IG Field against Atlético Ottawa, with a 6 p.m. start.

The Winnipeg crew opened the 2023 season with a 2-0 triumph over York United FC last Sunday in Toronto.

High-rise fire extinguished 

9:36 AM

Crews extinguished a fire in a high-rise apartment on River Avenue on Wednesday.

Firefighters were sent to the building in the 500 block of River Avenue at 4:32 p.m. They declared the fire under control at 5:01 p.m., the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said in a news release Wednesday night.

Firefighters contained the fire to the general area where the fire started, the WFPS said.

Trans-Canada Highway closed west of Brandon

9:38 AM

The Trans-Canada Highway is closed from Brandon to the Saskatchewan border because of rainy and icy conditions.

The province made the announcement early this morning, expanding an earlier closure from Virden to the Saskatchewan border.

A snowfall warning is in effect for most of southern Manitoba.

Victim dies long after assault

9:47 AM

Homicide investigators are investigating after a man died more than a week after he was assaulted.

The Winnipeg Police Service said the 25-year-old man was assaulted in the 300 block of Princess Street at about 12:30 a.m. on April 11. He was transported to hospital in unstable condition.

Police said they determined that the man, Leo Charles Martin-Shea, had been assaulted on the east side of Main Street at Stella Avenue between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. on April 8. He returned home.

Police and emergency personnel were not contacted until April 11, as Martin-Shea’s condition worsened. The WPS said Martin-Shea had suffered life-altering injuries and died this Wednesday.

The homicide unit is investigating. No arrests have been made.

The WPS is asking anyone with information about the assault or video surveillance footage that might help investigators to call the unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477 (TIPS).

Person found dead in Flora Avenue fire

10:22 AM

Winnipeg firefighters found a person dead following a blaze in a home on Flora Avenue early Thursday.

Winnipeg police said the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service was called to the residence on the 600 block of Flora Avenue at about 12:45 a.m.

While extinguishing the flames, crews found the victim and called for police. Police said WFPS treated a woman for non-life threatening injuries at the scene.

Winnipeg police major crimes investigators are probing the death and ask anyone with information on the incident to call the unit at 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

City of Winnipeg, Manitoba partner on wastewater infrastructure task force

10:47 AM

Manitoba Environment Minister Kevin Klein announced a new task force with municipal officials to advance wastewater infrastructure projects in the City of Winnipeg.

Klein will serve as taskforce chair and Winnipeg city councillor Brian Mayes will serve as vice-chair. Mayes (St. Vital) also chairs council’s standing policy committee on water, waste and environment.

The task force’s focus is to ensure the three-phase upgrade project to the North End Water Pollution Control Centre is completed by 2030.

“It (the task force) avoids some of the delays that have plagued the program over the last couple of years,” Mayes said. “We really need to get on the same page and pick up the pace and I think this does that.”

Both Mayes and Klein said the task force announcement does not guarantee funding to complete the third phase of the project.

Five arrested after RCMP vehicle shot at in Dauphin

12:48 PM

No one was injured, but five were arrested, after an unmarked RCMP cruiser was shot at in Dauphin earlier today.

Dauphin RCMP said officers in the unmarked cruiser were trying to find a 15-year-old youth, believed to be in possession of a firearm, when they spotted the suspect leave a residence with another male at about 1:35 a.m.

RCMP said when the pair spotted the vehicle the officers were in, they began to run and the youth shot at the officers before running back into the residence.

The officers weren’t injured and made sure no one left the house before the RCMP’s emergency response team could come and enter, taking five suspects into custody.

RCMP are continuing to investigate.

Crews douse Gertie Street fire

4:08 PM

Firefighters doused a blaze in a Gertie Street home Thursday morning.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews were called to the two-and-a-half storey apartment house on the 100 block of the street just before 11:20 a.m.

Firefighters found smoke coming from the building and went inside, where they got the fire under control in just over 10 minutes.

All residents got themselves out of the building and no one was reported hurt.