Man seized at random, tortured for bank card number

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This article was published 19/09/2018 (2718 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man out for an evening stroll to get a slice of pizza in Winnipeg’s West End in June was snatched off the street and tortured by strangers for money.

The 32-year-old Winnipegger was hit over the head, held at gunpoint, beaten, burned with cigarettes, held out of an upper-floor window, and forced to breathe in methamphetamine smoke from a garbage bag pulled over his head while a knife was held to his throat.

“It reads like a movie script but, in this case, it’s real,” said Winnipeg police spokeswoman Const. Tammy Skrabek. “A complete stranger is innocently walking down the street and people beat and robbed him for money for drugs.”

The victim wasn’t expensively dressed or of obvious means but still was snatched off the street and tortured until he disclosed his bank card’s security code, Skrabek said.

“There was less than $500 in his bank account and he wasn’t coming from a casino. He was coming from a residence in the area and going to buy a piece of pizza,” she said.

“It seems to be very random.”

On June 9 at 9:15 p.m., the man was walking near Sargent Avenue and Victor Street when a van screeched to a halt beside him. Two people got out, struck him on the head, pulled him into the van, bound his hands and took his wallet and cellphone.

He was taken at gunpoint to an address in the 500 block of Spence Street where he was tied to a chair and beaten by several people demanding his bank-card security code. A plastic bag was placed over his head and he was forced to inhale methamphetamine smoke while a knife was held at his throat, Skrabek said.

“They closed the bag around his head after they blew smoke in it and told him to breathe,” she said. At the same time, he was being threatened at knife point.

“He received a cut to the back of his neck.”

He was hanged out a window of the three-storey home, burned with cigarettes and threatened with a gun pointed at his head to disclose his ATM card security code. In the early hours of June 10, he gave them the code and they fled. The victim escaped and sought help. He was taken to hospital where he contacted police.

“One of the threats made to him while he was held was that if he went to police they would find his family and hurt them,” said Skrabek. “Fortunately, he did.”

Measures are in place to help the victim and ensure his identity remains anonymous, she said.

After being treated for several non-life threatening injuries, the victim was released from hospital and directed police to the house where he said he was held. A search warrant was obtained and several items related to the kidnapping and assault were located and seized, police said. Video surveillance in the area was obtained that identified at least two suspects.

On Aug. 11, one was arrested in the West End. On Sept. 18, a second suspect was arrested in St. Boniface. Police have charged Boniface John Mason, 20, and Preston Anthony Kakegamic, 29, with several offences including kidnapping, robbery, possession of a weapon, forcible confinement and “administer a noxious thing with intent to endanger life or cause bodily harm.”

They are being held in the Winnipeg Remand Centre and police are looking for more suspects. The victim couldn’t identify the other captors or the van used to abduct him, Skrabek said.

“The impression was they were on drugs of some sort,” she said, noting the investigation so far has pointed to just one motive.

“The purpose was money for drugs.”

Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca