'Concerning:' Manitoba homicides spiked in 2024

Manitoba RCMP has seen a spike in homicides in 2024.

So far this year, RCMP has responded to 56 homicides, nearly doubling the 33 it responded to in 2023.

“It's concerning to us,” said Supt. Rob Lasson with the Manitoba RCMP’s Major Crime Unit. “Whenever anybody loses their life to a homicide, it’s concerning. But when we're seeing up to 60 people losing their lives due to violent crime, it is concerning across the province.”

This year saw two notable homicides with multiple victims; in February, a mother, her three children, and her niece were killed at multiple crime scenes in and around Carman, Man.

Police tape is seen outside of a home in Carman, Man. where a homicide took place in February 2024. (CTV News Winnipeg)

In August, RCMP responded to a triple homicide in McCreary that investigators described as a “horrific act of intimate partner violence.”

“Even if we take those away, we're still seeing a significant increase across the province,” Lasson said.

Lasson noted gang activity and intimate partner violence were factors in multiple homicides this year.

The multiple calls across the province are also impacting RCMP, with Lasson saying it’s causing stress for investigators.

Supt. Rob Lasson with the Manitoba RCMP’s Major Crime Unit speaks about homicides in Manitoba on Dec. 12, 2024. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

“Just the departure from your home, being called out at 3 a.m. and jumping on an aircraft, or driving up Highway 6 in a snowstorm into northern Manitoba, that's very stressful just to get to the location,” he said. “And then the stress of actually investigating the homicide."

He added, “We’ve had investigators that are on the road for two weeks at a time. They get home, get a change of clothes, visit their family, and then they're gone the next day again for 10 to 14 days.”

Lasson said RCMP analysts will look at this year’s numbers and compare them to recent years to see if there is a trend in violent crime increases or if 2024 is an anomaly.