Police probe Henry Avenue death

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This article was published 02/02/2023 (1200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One person is dead after an incident outside a Winnipeg shelter Thursday morning.

Winnipeg Police Service homicide unit and major crimes investigators were probing the event on Henry Avenue, at Main Street.

As of mid-Thursday afternoon, police spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said she had not yet gotten authorization to release details, but confirmed there was a fatality.

Early Thursday, police officers in squad cars sat watch over the scene, with two vehicles on Main Street and another two on Henry Avenue.

Yellow police tape stretched from the Lighthouse Mission on Main Street, around the Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope shelter, down Henry Avenue.

An officer clad in a balaclava walked behind the tape, taking photographs.

One yellow evidence marker laid near what appeared to be blood spatters in the snow, near the Henry Avenue entrance to the Salvation Army shelter.

Few people milled about in the frigid temperatures near the scene in the city’s core, where most services for those experiencing homelessness are concentrated, though some lined up outside the Lighthouse Mission.

If the death is confirmed as a homicide, it would be the fourth of 2023, and the second in the area since Sunday, when a man was found dead at the nearby Manwin Hotel.

Earlier this week, police found Carl George Wescoupe, 40, dead in a suite.

Wescoupe had suffered “severe” injuries, but police did not give further details.

Officers went to the hotel after another man showed up at a city hospital with a serious injury at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

While speaking to police, the man, who is in his 30s, indicated someone else might be injured at the hotel at 655 Main St.

Police have announced no arrests in Wescoupe’s slaying.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

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