FIREARMS VIOLENCE A RISING TIDE IN CITY

Latest Death Part Of Alarming Trend

A man who was killed on a city street early yesterday morning is the latest
in a growing string of Winnipeg-area gunshot victims.

The death is the city's 26th homicide in 2004.

The killing is part of a rising tide of firearm violence in the city in the
past year. Nine people have been killed by firearms in the Winnipeg region
so far in 2004. Over the previous four years together, there were just
eight firearm homicides in the Winnipeg area, according to unofficial Free
Press records.

The body of the victim, who witnesses said appeared to be in his 30s, lay
beneath a sheet in front of a home in the 1900 block of Alexander Avenue in
the Brooklands area of northwest Winnipeg for much of yesterday morning.

The shooting occurred about 5:30 a.m.

Police did not release the victim's name.

Firearms homicides in Winnipeg region

The following is a list of homicides involving firearms in the Winnipeg
region this year.

Oct. 9 -- Trevor Sinclair, 25, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the
chest on King Street near Dufferin Avenue, at about 2 a.m.

Sept. 16 -- Wilson Martinez, 20, who faced crack cocaine charges, was
murdered by a bullet in the head, gangland style.

Aug. 27 -- Fourteen-year-old Sirak Okbazion was chased to the front of 533
Sherbrook street, where he was shot and killed.

Aug. 1 - A 19-man was killed by a shotgun blast to his stomach, on the
second floor of 639 Selkirk Avenue just before 6 a.m.

July 31 - Sterling Moar, 19, was killed by a shotgun blast to his torso
outside 689 Beverly Street.

July 4 - The body of Trevor Tanner, 22, who had been shot to death, was
found on a dead-end gravel road at the edge of Lockport.

June 12 - Cynthia LaFleur, 25, died instantly when she was accidentally
shot in the head at her Redwood Avenue home by a suspect showing off a shotgun.

Feb. 8 - Shawn Stephan Moore, 22, was shot once in the head and killed at
an Andrews Street rooming house described by neighbours as a drug house.

"It's terrible... people hurting each other (with guns)," said Patricia
Gunning, who lives just down the street from where the shooting took place.

Gunning said she heard a loud blast, followed a few minutes later by the
sound of sirens. "I heard the shot but I never saw the whole thing."

Some witnesses yesterday awoke to the sound of an argument and then a loud
bang.

"I heard yelling... a man sounded really mad," said an area resident who
called 911. She did not give her name to reporters. "There was a pop. We
ran to the window and there were three people running down the back lane
through a little field," she said. "I could see someone lying on the
ground. A woman was yelling for help. She kept saying, 'He's shot. He's shot.'"

Another neighbour said he saw a "hysterical" woman being put into a police
car. "She was screaming her head off," said the man, who also didn't want
his name used.

He said police dogs were used to search the area, and a line of officers
fanned across the school yard looking for evidence. "My guess is they
haven't found the gun yet," he said, before asking, "Where are all these
guns coming from?" Justice sources say there have been an increasing number
of shootings reported in the city, and many more that go unreported because
participants are unwilling to co-operate with police.

They suggest the increase in weapons on the street is directly linked to
the city's ongoing drug war. Earlier this week, a Winnipeg judge said she
was shocked at the apparent availability of black-market firearms in the city.

Judge Cathy Everett was discussing the sentence of an American bank robber
who used a high-powered Ruger handgun as he attempted to rob a Winnipeg
bank within 48 hours of arriving in the city.

Barry Antill admitted he "didn't know a soul in Winnipeg," which prompted
the judge's to question how he managed to get a gun so quickly.

Antill refused to tell the judge how he got the gun. "It's a chilling
statement on Winnipeg if he was able to get a gun within 48 hours," Everett
said.

University of Winnipeg criminologist Doug Skoog said that while he doesn't
like to read too much into one year's statistics, the trend is alarming.

He said traditionally the city records a number of "domestic or
acquaintance homicides, typically in the inner city, fuelled by drugs or
alcohol. Those tended to be beatings or stabbings.

"What has been added to that is an usually large number of drug-or
gang-related homicides. And they tend to involve firearms," Skoog said.

"We have a situation in Winnipeg where, on the gang-and crime-related side,
the drug market isn't well-organized. There are too many competing for
turf, and the result is that you get a relatively high homicide rate."
Detectives from the homicide unit are continuing to investigate yesterday's
shooting. No arrests were made as of press time.

Neighbours said the small, white bungalow at 1935 Alexander is a scene of
frequent late-night parties. They said a woman and her three sons lived in
the home. Police removed a bloody broom handle and a child's metal scooter
from in front of the home, one witness said.

"Someone was beating somebody else and they pulled out a gun," said Steven
Schembri, who lives across the street. "There was a pretty large chest
wound... You could see a lot of blood."

Yellow tape surrounded much of the neighbourhood, and no one was allowed
down a two-block section of Alexander as police tried to shield residents
from the scene.

The nearby Brooklands School and Brooklands Daycare were closed for the
day. "The school is not connected in any way -- that we are certain of,"
Glover said. "There was a need to notify the parents, because certainly,
this is a traumatic tragedy and the kids really were disturbed."

The dead man's body lay right in front of Doug Hallett's house. "That's a
traumatic thing," said Hallett, who arrived home about 6 a.m. after working
the night shift and had to show identification before being allowed past
the police tape.

"I had a hard time keeping my kids from looking through the blinds."