News briefs for Friday, July 31, 2026

Drugs, weapons seized from west Winnipeg home

3:17 PM

Winnipeg Police Service officers seized a cache of weapons, drugs and cash from a home on Buchanan Boulevard on Thursday.

Police began investigating the home on the 1000 block of Buchanan in west Winnipeg in May and identified several suspects.

On Thursday, officers seized a sawed-off rifle, a pellet handgun and pellet rifle, a high capacity 9mm pistol magazine, brass knuckles, 22.5 grams of cocaine, about one-and-a-half grams of methamphetamine, scales and drug packaging materials, just under $400 in cash and ammunition.

Two men, aged 41 and 48, and a 34-year-old woman, are all charged with firearm, weapons and drug trafficking offences. All were held in custody.

Suspects sought after electrical cables stolen from Grunthal business

3:01 PM

RCMP are investigating after two men wearing safety vests stole $40,000 to $50,000 worth of electrical cable from a business in Grunthal last weekend.

An employee of a business on Holme Road in Grunthal reported the theft to St. Pierre-Jolys RCMP on Tuesday. The employee said the theft occurred at about 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The two suspects, one in an orange safety vest and the other in a blue safety vest, took the cable and left in a red pickup truck, RCMP said.

Mounties believe the same two suspects were involved in an attempted theft later that same day, in which they breached a lock at a cellphone tower near Highway 216 and Highway 59. An employee at the site spooked them and the pair fled.

RCMP are asking members of the public who may know about the thefts, or who owns the red truck, to call the St. Pierre-Jolys detachment at 204-433-7908 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

RCMP detachment generator set ablaze on northern First Nation

2:58 PM

Mounties have arrested a 17-year-old boy accused of lighting a generator on fire at a northern First Nation’s RCMP detachment early Friday morning.

RCMP in O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation were alerted that the detachment’s generator was on fire just after 2 a.m. on Friday.

Local volunteer firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, which came close to the front of the RCMP building.

Mounties were told that a 17-year-old boy had been in the area prior to the fire. Minutes later, officers were called to a local business, where numerous windows on a vehicles had been smashed.

Officers found the suspect at a home in the community. He’s been charged with arson and three counts of mischief under $5,000. The teen has been held in custody.

Provincial roads damaged by flooding reopen

1:53 PM

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure is reopening several provincial roads damaged and closed after the Parkland region was swamped by rainfall in June.

More than 50 roads suffered washouts after 200 millimetres of rain fell in the region, resulting in restrictions for many motorists in the area, said a provincial news release Friday. 

Provincial Highway 5 approximately two kilometres west of Highway 10 at Wilson River is now open.

Highway 10, just over two kilometres east from Highway 83 at Tamarack Creek, has also reopened, alongside Highway 10, more than two kilometres north of Provincial Road 271 at Pine River. 

The highway is also open three kilometres west of Provincial Road 366. 

Highway 20 has reopened approximately 10 kilometres of Provincial Road 271.

Highway 77 is now open, alongside Highway 83, more than one kilometre south of Highway 10, alongside six kilometres north of Highway 57. 

Highway 366, from Highway 5 to Provincial Road 485, is also open. 

The province said while numerous restrictions have been lifted on roads in the area, many still have reduced speeds, temporary repairs and single-lane traffic in place. 

Motorists are asked to obey all posted signage and exercise caution. 

Seven arrested in Young Street drug raid

11:30 AM

Seven people were arrested after Winnipeg police raided a Young Street suite after community complaints about drug dealing.

Winnipeg Police Service officers executed a warrant on the multi-suite residence on the 200 block of Young on Wednesday, after officers identified several suspects.

In the suite, police found two sawed-off shotguns, several swords and machetes, about 28 grams of fentanyl, about two grams of crack cocaine, ammunition and $1,640 in cash.

Two men and five women were arrested. All face weapons and drug-trafficking charges.

Man wanted on parole warrant arrested with gun

10:28 AM

A man wanted on a warrant after his parole was revoked was arrested after he was spotted driving an electric scooter in Winnipeg’s North End on Wednesday evening.

The Winnipeg Police Service said patrol officers spotted the suspect erratically operating the scooter southbound on Salter Street near Redwood Avenue just before 8 p.m. He was weaving in and out of lanes, causing traffic to slow, police said.

Officers tried to pull the suspect over on the 200 block of Salter and he tried to run, but officers quickly caught him.

As they were arresting him, the suspect tried to reach into a satchel, leading police to use a Taser electroshock weapon on him. Police found a loaded Glock handgun, a few opioid pills and about $1,300 in cash.

Owen Lucas Pistun, 22, has been charged with a slew of firearm offences, as well as possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, possession of the proceeds of crime under $5,000 and resisting police. He was also charged on a warrant for being unlawfully at large since May this year.

Pistun has just one conviction on his Manitoba record, stemming from his August 2023 guilty plea to discharging a firearm with intent in March 2022. He was given six years in federal prison, less time served.

‘Belligerent’ man ticketed after dog left in hot car

10:19 AM

Winnipeg police have ticketed a man accused of leaving his dog in his vehicle in a grocery store parking lot, then attacking bystanders who were concerned about the pet’s welfare during the intense heat earlier this week.

Winnipeg Police Service patrol officers were called to the Safeway parking lot on the 600 block of Osborne Street at about 1 p.m. on Wednesday over the incident.

Police believe the man parked in the lot and left his German Shepherd in the vehicle to shop. Several bystanders gave the “thirsty, distressed” dog cold water through a crack in the window. The driver confronted them, then went back into the store. The bystanders continued to try to help the dog, as the temperature was about 30 C with a humidex value of 43 C.

The man then returned to his vehicle and was “belligerent” with the bystanders, before hitting one of them with his vehicle, reversing into a parked pickup truck and driving off at a high speed, police said.

Officers identified the suspect and went to his residence, where they found the dog tied up in the backyard and were met by the man, police said.

A 67-year-old man has been issued several tickets under the Highway Traffic Act and the Animal Care Act, including inflicting suffering, anxiety or distress to an animal, failing to ensure adequate food or water for an animal, and failing to provide an animal with reasonable protection from injurious heat or cold.