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Winnipeg police investigating two shootings Thursday morning; one man taken to hospital

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WINNIPEG -

Gun shots rang out in two Winnipeg neighbourhoods early Thursday morning, leaving one man injured and neighbours in the area concerned for their safety.

Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) said around 1:45 a.m., officers responded to a call that a man had been shot on Poplar Avenue in the Elmwood area.

When officers arrived, they found the man and he was taken to hospital in stable condition.

Jaclynne Green, a resident in the area, said she woke up to a street filled with police cruisers, fire trucks, and an ambulance.

“Immediately we looked outside and saw our neighbour being pulled out of his house on a stretcher into the ambulance.”

Green said she reached out to her neighbour's wife who said her husband had been shot after an altercation with some people in his back lane.

Investigators believe the shooting happened after the man saw a group of people near his vehicle and he confronted them.

Police said a verbal altercation broke out and one of the people shot the man and then the group ran from the area.

Green said for the last few months, cars and garages in the area have been broken into multiple times, resulting in thousands of dollars in damages and stolen items.

“(The theft is) always on the same day, Thursday morning early in the morning. So our neighbour was outside waiting for them to come, and this time he caught them and he confronted them, and unfortunately he ended up getting shot in the process.”

The Major Crimes Unit has taken over the investigation and no arrests have been made.

Poplar Avenue wasn’t the only street where shots were fired Thursday morning.

Around 5 a.m., police responded to a gun call outside an apartment complex on Riverstone Road.

Police said a man had let his dog outside and he noticed another man getting out of a vehicle in front of his driveway.

The two men started arguing and police said the second man started firing a gun. The first man was not hit but went back inside and called the police.

Leona Baptiste lives in the area and said she heard a loud pop, but initially she didn’t know what it was.

“He shot at my neighbour, and it was pretty scary to hear that because there’s a lot of kids around here.”

Const. Dani McKinnon with the Winnipeg Police Service said the major crimes unit is investigating both incidents.

“Based on the initial suspect information that they’ve received, we do not believe that they’re related. They present coincidentally very similarly but we don’t believe that they are related.”

McKinnon doesn’t believe the victims and the suspects were known to each other, and both attacks appear to be random.

Green said her neighbour is recovering at home, but she’s surprised the altercation escalated to that level.

“When people are doing property damage, not necessarily breaking into homes, not necessarily confronting people, you don’t expect them to be armed.”

WPS said no arrests have been made at this time, and anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call police at 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.

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