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Two teens are facing drug and gun charges after four shootings in Winnipeg this week, including one that left a bullet lodged in a home while its residents were sleeping.
The incidents happened Tuesday and Wednesday, police said at a news conference Friday.
No one was hurt, but the shootings are “extremely concerning to the community,” said Const. Stephen Spencer, a spokesperson for the Winnipeg Police Service.
In the first incident, shots were fired from a back lane toward a home on Beverley Street, near Portage Avenue, at about 4 a.m.
About 25 minutes later, shots were fired into the air from a lane behind Agnes Street, north of Ellice Avenue.
More shots were fired from a lane behind Toronto Street, near St. Matthews Avenue in the West End, around 8:45 a.m.
Officers recovered 9mm shell casings from all three locations, and a bullet was found in a kitchen wall.
People at the Beverley home were sleeping at the time and “didn’t even know that the house was shot” until later that morning, Spencer said. Police don’t believe the home was targeted.
The fourth incident, in which as many as eight rounds were fired into the air, happened on Toronto Street, in the area of Ellice Avenue, shortly before 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Officers searched the area and arrested two masked teens, police said. Officers seized a 9mm handgun and magazine, crack cocaine and $3,800, police said.
The police service couldn’t confirm whether the incidents were gang-related and doesn’t know why the shots were fired.
Spencer emphatically warned against firing rounds into the sky.
“What goes up must come down. So, that round could come down within hundreds of yards and still do damage,” he said.
A 17-year-old boy faces 10 charges, including carrying a concealed weapon, three counts of discharging a firearm in a reckless manner and possessing a drug for the purpose of trafficking.
The other boy, also 17, faces 19 charges, including discharging a firearm at or into a place in a reckless manner, three counts of failing to comply with a condition of a release order and five counts of failing to comply with a sentence.
They remain in custody.
Senior Assassin game
Officers came across a youth carrying a water gun while searching for the shooters after the Toronto Street incident Tuesday. That led police to repeat their warnings about a game, popular among Grade 12 students, known as Senior Assassin.
“This individual was hiding behind a tree playing the game,” police spokesperson Const. Claude Chancy said.
“It becomes a possibly dangerous situation for not only the police officers, but obviously for the young adult that was playing the game.”
Const. Claude Chancy, another police spokesperson, advised students against playing the Senior Assassin game, particularly in public areas. (Kevin Nepitabo/CBC)
Police have issued warnings about the game in the last couple of years, including earlier this week, because water pistols have been confused for real guns, leading to a rise in bystander calls to police.
The goal of the game is to eliminate an assigned target by squirting them with a nerf, pellet or water gun.
“Any firearm, or anything that appears as a firearm, is treated as such by police officers,” Chancy said, adding 3D-printed guns have been made to resemble toys.
In this case, officers were able to safely determine the youth was indeed carrying a water gun and told other officers.
Police are advising students against playing the game, especially in public areas such as libraries, malls and restaurants, Chancy said. They’re also urging people to avoid going on private property and not to chase targets in vehicles or wear disguises or masks.
WATCH | High school water gun game complicates shooting investigation, police say:
High school water gun game complicates shooting investigation, police say
While hunting for two actual teenage shooting suspects, Winnipeg police ran into a different teenager playing a high school water gun game, which they say complicated the investigation.