GANGS BLAMED IN SHOOTING, STABBING

A 23-year-old man was shot within blocks of where a 21-year-old man
was stabbed Saturday night, in two separate incidents that police
said were likely gang-related.

The shooting happened about half an hour before the stabbing, but
police said Sunday they did not think the incidents were related.

Police say they were called to the scene of the shooting around 11
p.m. after getting a report of shots fired near Central Park. They
found the victim in the area of the park at Carlton Street and
Cumberland Avenue.

The victim is a 23-year-old man with two shotgun wounds to his upper
body. He was listed in stable condition yesterday.

Winnipeg police are looking for a black man in his teens or early 20s
who is a suspect in the shooting.

Sunday afternoon residents and passersby in Central Park said the
area's gang and drug problem is getting worse and most people are
afraid to walk through the centre of the small park.

"It's not safe here," said John M, an immigrant from Sudan who moved
out of the area two years ago. "There's a lot of gangs going on here."

Marie, another woman who lives in an apartment block on the edge of
Central Park, clutched her grocery bags as she walked home Sunday
afternoon. Marie said people in her building have warned her about
walking through Central Park and going out at night.

"I always hear shouting, screaming," she said.

A 21-year-old man is in stable condition in hospital with multiple
stab wounds following a fight in the inner city that was mere blocks
away from the shooting.

The man stumbled into a gas station on the corner of Sherbrook Street
and Notre Dame Avenue just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday asking for
help. An attendant there called an ambulance.

He may have fled for help following a fight on Cumberland Avenue and
Sherbrook that police are investigating as gang-related violence.

Police say the stabbing victim is refusing to talk to them about what happened.

The gas station attendant who was working Saturday night said he was
neither shocked nor frightened when the bloody man walked in. It
wasn't the first time he's had to call an ambulance to help a victim
of violence and the attendant said he got first aid training to learn
how to stop wounds from bleeding.

"I wouldn't say it's common but it happens enough," he said. "It's
just neighbourhood drama."