News briefs for Thursday, June 8, 2023

Man accused in Main Street crash with police cruiser charged

10:18 AM

Winnipeg police have formally charged the man accused of smashing a stolen truck into a cop car early Wednesday morning, hospitalizing two officers.

McKae Ledingham, 25, was allegedly behind the wheel of a stolen Lincoln Mark LT pickup truck that collided with a police cruiser at Main Street and Belmont Avenue in West Kildonan at about 4 a.m. Wednesday.

He was charged with two counts each of dangerous operation and cause bodily harm by criminal negligence, as well as one count each of resist peace officer, possession of property obtained by crime and fail to comply with the condition of a release order. He’s been detained.

The Free Press learned Ledingham was out on bail with driving restrictions after being released May 23, after he was charged with fleeing police and other offences north of the city earlier this spring.

First-degree murder suspect arrested in Sandy Bay

11:13 AM

A wanted man accused in an apparently targeted fatal shooting in Sandy Bay Ojibway Nation Monday has been arrested.

RCMP say officers located Shawn Owen Spence, 26.

He was wanted on a warrant for first-degree murder and two firearms offences connected to a shooting in the Indigenous community on the shore of Lake Manitoba at about 6:30 a.m. Monday. A 39-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Teen accused in Swan River slaying arrested in Winnipeg

2:24 PM

RCMP major crimes investigators have arrested a teen accused in the late May slaying of a woman in Swan River.

Mounties were called at about 3 a.m. on May 29 to a home in the town — which is about 500 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, near the Saskatchewan border — where they found the 29-year-old victim dead.

On Wednesday, RCMP said investigators arrested a 15-year-old boy from Swan River, in Winnipeg. He’s been charged with manslaughter and remanded in custody. Police said he and the victim knew each other.

Gray Academy hold-and-secure lifted: police

3:28 PM

Gray Academy went into a precautionary hold-and-secure Thursday afternoon, police say.

The Jewish day school on Doncaster Street entered the lockdown at 2 p.m. because of an investigation in the area, Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said.

The hold-and-secure was lifted at 3:14 p.m.

McKinnon did not immediately have details on what the investigation entailed, but stressed that the hold-and-secure was a preventative, precautionary measure because of nearby police work, rather than something involving the school.

Folk Fest’s Skromeda to head Manitoba Film and Music

3:29 PM

Lynne Skromeda, the executive director of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, will be the new chief executive officer of Manitoba Film and Music and the province’s film commissioner.

Skromeda takes over Aug. 8, about a month after the end of the 2023 festival.

She has been at the folk fest helm since 2012, and prior to that spent 13 years in film and television with Frantic Films as a producer and senior executive.

She takes over from Rod Bruinooge, who has been serving in an interim capacity since November 2021.

WAG’s Warhol prints sell for $780,000

5:10 PM

Four Andy Warhol silkscreen prints of Queen Elizabeth II that were part of the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s permanent collection sold for $780,000 at a fine-art auction in Toronto Thursday afternoon.

Cowley Abbott, the auction house that sold the prints and dozens of other paintings Thursday, had estimated the Warhol works to sell for between $700,000 to $900,000.

The WAG intends to use the funds from the sale to purchase contemporary Indigenous art, in particular works by First Nations and Metis artists, which director and CEO Stephen Borys says is under-represented within the gallery’s permanent collection.