A rash of homicides over the weekend launched the city closer to breaking a record for what Winnipeg police call a “horrible” number of homicides.
On Sunday afternoon, Winnipeg police announced three people had died in two separate incidents that happened less than five hours apart - a 14-year-old girl died after a stabbing at a Halloween party on Saturday evening, and two men died from serious upper-body injuries early Sunday morning.
The deaths bring Winnipeg’s total homicide count this year up to 36, Const. Rob Carver with the Winnipeg Police Service, told CTV News Winnipeg. The record number in Winnipeg was set in 2011, when police investigated 41 homicides.
“We are certainly on track to a horrible number,” said Carver, adding homicides in nature are random. “In terms of the singular nature of homicide investigations – this morning we have three deceased. We might go a month and nothing will happen and then a similar cluster could occur – it’s the nature of homicides.”
Weapons on street leading to violence
While the number of homicides is high this year, Carver said police do not feel there is one underlying issue – such as gang-violence – that is causing the spike in deaths.
“It’s tragically just random,” Carver said.
While the reason behind the homicides may be random, Carver said the increase in weapons on the street is leading to more assaults – and sometimes homicides.
Carver said Winnipeg police officers regularly find people armed, sometimes with edged weapons – including scissors, knifes, or machetes. Other times, people are armed with firearms.
“I know anecdotally, talking to officers – there is not a day that goes by where we are not seizing a firearm in the street,” said Carver, adding Winnipeg is not unique in this trend. “We know that firearms are becoming much more common in the hands of criminals – we know an awful lot of them are coming from south of the boarder.”
Carver said there are three main ways guns land up on the street – they are legally obtained by someone with no criminal record and then transferred to criminal organizations, they are stolen, or they are illegally imported.
Carver said the number of firearm incidents has been growing the past few years, with this year jumping significantly over last year.
Gun legislation sufficient, police said
With some Canadians calling for stricter regulations on firearms in the country, Carver said he didn’t see legislative reform as the answer to gun violence in Winnipeg.
“The guns we are seeing are already illegal – the people who have them are possessing them illegally – they are being obtained illegally,” said Carver. “It doesn’t appear that any additional changes to legislation would make any difference from a law enforcement standpoint.”
