City equals 2019 homicide record in 2020

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This article was published 04/01/2021 (1450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s 2020 homicide total has risen to 44.

The Winnipeg Police Service reported Tuesday morning the killing of Leroy Flett, 31, would be classified as a 2020 homicide in its files.

Flett was injured Dec. 30, 2020, and died Jan. 1.

His death pushes the city’s homicide total to 44 in 2020, which ties the record-high number of killings the previous year.

In 2019, Winnipeg also had 44 homicides — a 100 per cent increase over the 22 logged in 2018.

The WPS homicide unit has handled 43 of the city’s killings in 2020. The lone other case was investigated by the RCMP, after the body of Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe was found in Portage la Prairie in June 2020.

The investigation led Mounties to a residence in Winnipeg, where they say Reimer-Wiebe was killed. Four people have been charged in connection to his death.

In a news release Tuesday, however, a WPS spokesman said due to “different sets of methodologies,” Statistics Canada will record Flett’s homicide as occurring in 2021.

“Unofficially, WPS records will consider (Flett’s) death a 2020 homicide… (But) when the WPS publishes its official statistical report in summer 2021, it will follow and mirror the methodological data protocols used by Statistics Canada,” the spokesman said.