The Winnipeg Police Service shared a snapshot of how busy officers were kept over the holidays Wednesday, including details of a New Year’s Eve that saw 20 officers and cadets move into the bar at The Marlborough Hotel where multiple fights had broken out.

Also on New Year’s at the same hotel, police said a male threw a table out of a seventh story window, causing $10,000 in damage and showering the ground below with glass.

Police said 51 people were arrested by the service on New Year’s, including a suspect in a homicide from September who was at the hotel bar where the fights had broken out.

Officers were called there repeatedly, said Const. Rob Carver, adding the crowd was “overly intoxicated and unruly,” and no one was “cooperating with officer’s comments.”

“At one point officers realize they’re outnumbered by a fairly aggressive crowd and they’re being surrounded, and there’s some minor assaults, some shoving and stuff going on, at this point they’re going to ask for more backup, which is why we ended up with 20 officers there, and now we’re using our powers to order the shutdown of the licenced establishment,” said Carver.

The emergency closure of the bar was ordered under provisions on the Liquor Control Act, said Carver. The general manager of The Marlborough Hotel told CTV News the decision to shut down was a mutual one between the hotel and police.

Carver said the wild scene wasn’t necessarily unusual.

“Our officers going to rowdy bar situations, often on a Saturday night, or on a New Year’s Eve, are not uncommon, I’ve been to them myself where we have 15 or 20 officers having to show up to deal with crowds of a couple of hundred revellers, intoxicated and often very aggressive,” said Carver.

“It’s disturbingly common actually.”

The man arrested at the bar in connection with an unrelated homicide investigation, Michael Caribou, is facing second degree murder charges.

New Year’s Eve also saw officers called to a home invasion where a 12 and 10-year-old were home alone. On New Year’s Day, a man was fatally shot on Nairn Avenue, prompting the first homicide investigation in Winnipeg of 2019.

The Winnipeg Police Service also shared statistics of its calls for service between Dec. 24, 2018 and Jan. 1, 2019, which included two homicides, 16 stabbings and 12 calls of shots being fired:

  • 7,559 calls for service were received by 9-1-1
  • 3,412 non-emergency calls for service received
  • Dec. 27 had the highest 9-1-1 call volume (995)
  • Dec. 28 had the busiest hour for police, where between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., 121 calls for service were received