‘Extremely troubling and dangerous’: teen charged after teen killed with shotgun

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This article was published 08/08/2023 (1178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 15-year-old boy was killed when another teen “carelessly pointed” a loaded sawed-off shotgun at three youth Saturday. It marked the second slaying in Winnipeg that day.

Patrol and tactical officers were called about a shooting at a home in the Jefferson neighbourhood at about 8:15 p.m., where they found the teen dead, the Winnipeg Police Service said Tuesday.

A group of teenage friends, including the 16-year-old accused, were socializing. The accused brought a sawed-off shotgun, police said, and was showing it off.

He pointed the gun at three of the youth and the shotgun fired, killing the 15-year-old, police said.

WPS spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said major crimes investigators don’t believe the teen intentionally fired the gun.

However, the shooting is an alarming indication of increasing gun crime involving minors, she said.

“It’s extremely concerning. Unfortunately, it’s not surprising in that we are experiencing more incidents involving youth and firearms in this city,” McKinnon said Tuesday.

“At the end of the day, we don’t know what the intention of the gun being there was, we don’t know why he had it in his possession. But the fact it was being brandished or possibly passed around and pointed at other people is extremely troubling and dangerous.”

On Tuesday, investigators arrested a 16-year-old male. He has been charged with manslaughter, three counts of pointing a firearm, and four other firearms-related charges.

His name cannot be released under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Police seized the gun, with firearms investigators now analyzing the weapon to potentially determine where it came from. McKinnon said the shotgun had been illegally modified, making it particularly dangerous.

Earlier, Winnipeg homicide detectives arrested two suspects in the stabbing death of a man in a West Broadway alley.

George Nickolas Demos, 50, was found unresponsive by police in the lane behind the 200 block of Furby Street, at about 3:20 a.m. Saturday. He later died in hospital.

Jonathan Michael Gladue, 23, has been charged with second-degree murder, and was due in court Tuesday.

Gladue has just one past conviction: possessing a weapon dangerous to the public peace in March 2018. He was given a year of supervised probation and time served, court records show.

A 17-year-old male will also be charged with second-degree murder in Demos’s slaying. His name also cannot be released under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

WPS spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said the victim did not know either of the accused, but could not reveal any further details.

Homicide investigators have asked anyone with information, or video surveillance footage in the area, to call the unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

The two Saturday deaths mark the 20th and 21st slayings, respectively, in the city this year.  It is a decline from the same period in 2022, when 33 people had been slain, according to a Free Press analysis.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca