WINNIPEG -- So far this year, Winnipeg has seen a total of 41 homicides – a high number that ties the city record set in 2011.
Statistics Canada said Manitoba had the highest rate of homicides in the country last year for the second straight year. The increase came even though the number of homicides in Winnipeg last year fell slightly to 22, according to The Canadian Press.
The latest homicide victim was 21-year-old Dustin Cree Baker, who was found dead in a home on Dufferin Avenue. Police believed he had been shot. Police arrested Khenedy Xaiyasen, 29 and charged him with second degree murder. These charges have not been tested in court.
The homicide victims range in age, with one of them being three-year-old Hunter Haze Smith-Straight, who was stabbed multiple times when he was asleep. Daniel Jensen, 33, was charged with second degree murder.
Most homicide victims know their killer, Statistic Canada said, with the 33 percent of homicides being committed by an acquaintance, and 34 per cent by a family member.
As previously reported by CTV News there have been more than 60 victims of homicide in Manitoba this year – including urban and rural areas.
READ MORE: What a decade of homicides reveals about the nature of the crime
Statistics Canada said the province recorded 55 homicides in 2018 – eight more than in the previous year.
