CARRIER CAUGHT IN DRUG BATTLE'S CROSSFIRE

Shot Hits Car, Core-Area House Torched

A Free Press newspaper carrier was caught in the crossfire when an
apparent dispute between two groups of crack-cocaine dealers and users
erupted in gunfire and a suspected arson.

The carrier, who did not want his name used for fear of retribution,
was delivering papers along Spence Street south of Broadway when he
heard what he thought was a brick or a rock shatter his windshield on
the passenger side.

As he got out of the van to check the damage, he noticed three men in
their 20s or early 30s standing a few houses down the block. He yelled
at them, then got back into his car to continue his route. As he
slowly drove by the men, the carrier noticed one was pointing a
shotgun at his Ford Aerostar van.

The carrier hightailed it to the nearest pay phone to call
police.

"I was pretty freaked out. I was barely coherent," he said. "Sometimes
there's a few drunks on the street. I've encountered a few of those,
but nothing like this."

As the carrier was calling police, he heard the sirens of fire trucks
arriving to fight a blaze at 86 Spence St., the house at the location
where he came under fire. Winnipeg Police Duty Insp. Bob Irwin
confirmed the carrier's windshield had been blasted by a sawed-off
shotgun. A box of shotgun shells was found on the boulevard at the
site of the shooting.

Police said the carrier was caught in the middle of a dispute
involving about 10 people belonging to two groups of crack users and
dealers.

Police said the carrier was caught in the middle of a dispute
involving about 10 people belonging to two groups of crack users and
dealers.

Details were sketchy last night, but police believe members of one
group intentionally set fire to the ramshackle three-storey home at 86
Spence while the rival group was inside.

As the group inside the house fled outdoors, a shot was fired and hit
the carrier's van. The major crimes unit and arson investigators were
still sorting through statements and evidence last night and had not
yet laid charges in the incident.

"For the type of people who are involved in crack cocaine, for them to
be co-operative with us takes a long time," Duty Insp. Tom Kloczko
said last night. Kloczko said crack cocaine was definitely at the
centre of the dispute, but he said there's no evidence yet that the
incident involved any of the area's gangs.

"It was a drug-related incident, but at this point we can't say it's
gang-related," Kloczko said.

The clapboard house at 86 Spence appeared abandoned yesterday, with a
pile of rubble in the backyard and several windows without panes.

Firefighters said the blaze caused $80,000 in damage, mostly to the
exterior of the house and to the third-floor ceiling.

The shooting happened in an area of the city that is in transition.
Extensive community efforts by several south Broadway groups have
transformed dilapidated streets farther west. On Spence Street,
derelict homes stand side by side with houses that have been fixed up
by their owners.

Wayne Martin, a circulation district manager at the Free Press, said
carriers serving tough parts of Winnipeg often encounter hostility.
Some have been beaten up or robbed, but no one has ever been shot at
before to his knowledge, he said.

If he can get his van back from police in time, the carrier plans to
return this morning to his West Broadway delivery route, which he has
had for three years.