Man dead after shots fired downtown

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This article was published 11/01/2020 (1713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One man was killed and two others were injured after shots were fired at the Windsor Hotel downtown, which Winnipeg police have said should be shuttered.

The shootings broke out around 3 a.m Sunday, at the hotel on Garry Street, just steps away from the Winnipeg Police Service’s downtown headquarters.

Winnipeg police duty Insp. Jimmy Anis said three men were rushed to hospital in critical condition.

One was later pronounced dead, making him the city’s second homicide victim of the year.

Anis said the two other men were later upgraded to stable condition.

Police are continuing to investigate the shooting and no arrests have been made. Police are asking anyone with information to contact homicide investigators at 204-986-6508 or leave a confidential tip at Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).

Outside the hotel, used blue first-responder latex gloves were tossed into the snow near the street and the almost empty parking lot south of the building. Evidence markers could been seen across the snow-covered parking lot. A black running shoe was on the sidewalk near the front entrance.

The Manitoba Historical Society said the hotel opened as the Le Claire Hotel in 1903, but became the Windsor Hotel in 1930. It is also the hotel where comedian Charlie Chaplin stayed in August 1913, when he wrote to his brother, Sidney, that he had decided to leave the stage and accept an offer from Keystone Studios to begin making movies for $150 per week.

On a balcony on the third floor of the hotel, behind the police tape below, a life-sized Chaplin drawing stands.

At the side of the building is a larger mural based on a scene from a Chaplin film.

The venue became an iconic music venue in the last few decades, but in recent years, it has become a magnet for crime.

Just last month, police announced they had seized firearms, drugs and cash during three visits over five days to the hotel in November.

Police said three men had been arrested in unrelated incidents. One of the seizures included a bag of cocaine, crack cocaine, and OxyNeo pills, worth almost $20,000. Another seizure involved 6.5 ounces of methamphetamine, a .22-calibre rifle and an improvised firearm.

The third seizure occurred after police were called to the hotel after a shot was fired in the lounge. Officers found a bag containing two sawed-off shotguns, a semi-automatic rifle and ammunition.

Sunday’s homicide took place 33 hours after the first homicide of the year, on Friday at 6:15 p.m.

Police were called to a home in the 100 block of Hindley Avenue where a woman was found in critical condition. She was rushed to hospital where she died.

A man was arrested, but police would not confirm how the two knew each other.

Police said more information would be released on both homicides today.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca