Arrests follow social media video threatening police

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This article was published 02/04/2019 (2545 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 25-year-old is facing multiple charges for firearms and uttering threats after a video was posted on social media of a man threatening to kill Winnipeg police officers.

The video, which was posted around March 22, also shows a man displaying a firearm outside the Graham Avenue police headquarters.

Police arrested the suspect March 26 around 9:20 p.m. after officers stopped a vehicle at Dufferin Avenue and McGregor Street.

Officers found three sawed-off firearms in the vehicle, two of which were loaded. Police said one of the guns was reported stolen in Alberta, while another was reported stolen in Manitoba.

Sean Andrew Spence has been charged with 27 firearm offences and uttering threats. He has been detained in custody. Two other people were also taken into custody.

Winnipeg Police Association president Moe Sabourin said it’s the latest in a string of violent incidents and threats directed toward officers since making the move from the former Public Safety Building to the site of the former Canada Post warehouse and distribution centre in 2016.

“What’s curious is it is seven days… after they made the arrest they are releasing this,” Sabourin said Tuesday. “The service only released (news of the arrest) after I made inquiries.

“The service is trying to downplay the incident… so as not to give us fuel for the fire to say the downtown is unsafe for the public and us,” he said, referencing a March 17 incident in which an off-duty officer reported having a man point a gun at him (an arrest was made the next day).

“It is a disservice to us and to citizens. They have the right to know there are crazy people with guns out there.”

Sabourin said creating secure parking for the personal vehicles of officers — as was the case at the Public Safety Building — would go a long way toward providing a safer working environment.

“I’m tired of talking until I’m blue in the face to the service and to the city,” he said.

“The issue is they are willing to take the risk nothing will happen.”

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Rob Carver said officers were already investigating the suspect on an unrelated matter when the threatening video was posted. He said the suspect was “very well-known” to police and has known gang ties.

“In all of the years I’ve been doing this, I’m not aware of anyone going out of their way to videotape themselves roaming around and (doing surveillance on) a police building with a firearm in their possession and posting that and saying they’re intending to kill an officer,” Carver said.

“That’s thankfully rare. It was incredibly disturbing.”

Carver said police deployed “all the resources available to us” to find the suspect.

“I think it’s safe to assume that everybody working here felt they were at risk until these individuals were arrested.”

 

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca