Man pointed airgun at mom, kids outside East Kildonan school: police

Police say a man pulled out what looked like a handgun while approaching a mother and her kids outside a school in the Rossmere neighbourhood and then pointed the weapon at a group of youths.

The Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release that a woman in her 40s was picking up her children from the school on the 900 block of Brazier Street at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The mother told police the man “approached her vehicle in a threatening manner” and pulled a black gun from his waistband as she pulled away, the release said.

The man then approached a group of youths near Brazier and Maxwell Place, pulled the gun from his waistband and pointed it at them, the WPS said. The victims fled.

The man did not know any of the victims, and the incidents are believed to be random and unprovoked, police said.

The River East Transcona School Division confirmed the incidents happened outside École John Henderson Middle School and said the youths in the second incident were students walking to a bus stop.

Officers arrested a man in the rear of an apartment complex on the 1000 block of Brazier about an hour after the first incident. Police seized two air pistols.

The man, 19, is facing charges of pointing a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon. He was released on an undertaking.