Winnipeg police say they have arrested a man after a series of assaults in the Exchange District last week.
On Wednesday at 10:26 a.m., police say an injured man was reported in the 400 block of Main Street after he had been assaulted in a business parking lot.
Responding officers took over custody of a man being held by intervening business staff and arrested him without incident.
Police say in the following days, officers received additional reports of similar unprovoked assaults in the city’s Exchange District.
Three women had been physically attacked in separate incidents between 10:15 a.m. and 10:25 a.m., moments before the Main Street incident, police say.
Investigators outlined several incidents linked to the suspect.
The first incident happened in the 200 block of Bannatyne Avenue, police say, when the suspect threw a metal chair which hit a 68-year-old woman in the lower body. The suspect then ran away.
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The second one was in the 200 block of McDermot Avenue and police say the suspect pushed an elderly woman to the ground using a mobility walker. The suspect began physically assaulting her in the upper body with a purse he was carrying before a local business owner intervened and stopped the assault. Before the suspect ran away, police say he then assaulted a 38-year-old woman who had also intervened with the previous assault.
The last assault was reported in the 400 block of Main Street which first alerted police to the assaults. Police say the suspect went to a surface parking lot of a business where he opened the driver’s-side door of a parked vehicle and kicked the 40-year-old man in the lower body. Staff from the business intervened and held the suspect until police arrived.
Police say the assaults are believed to have been random and the victims suffered minor injuries which did not need medical assistance.
The suspect was detained in custody.