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A Winnipeg construction worker was shot while walking along Powers Street in what appears to be a completely random and unprovoked attack.
Police said the man, 46, was walking to work Monday at about 6:30 a.m. near Pritchard Avenue when he was shot in the upper body. He was taken to hospital in unstable condition but has since been upgraded to stable.
“It was completely random, unprovoked, unexpected, there was no confrontation,” said Const. Tammy Skrabek. “He was just walking to work and he was just shot.”
The man’s co-worker, Laura Brooke, said she heard from her boss shortly after the man was shot.
“All of a sudden he heard a ‘Hey!’ really loud, and [the victim] turned around, and there was a guy with a mask on, black clothing, and took a shot, went flying past his head, and then shot again and hit him in the shoulder.”
Out of concern for her co-worker’s safety, she did not divulge the victim’s name or the name of their workplace.
Brooke said she visited her co-worker in the hospital.
“He was shocked because he goes to work every day, same time every day, whether it’s working in the north end or south end, nothing like this has ever happened,” she said.
“He’s a great guy, he’s got a family … he wants to come back to work, but he definitely does not want to come back to anywhere in the North End area.”
Another co-worker told Global News that the victim had moved here from Calgary in the past year to be with family and had been working with the company for just a few months.
“I work in that area actually every day,” she added. “I’m scared. I’m actually scared to go to work. If it’s a random shooting for no reason, it could be anybody.”
The Bear Clan Patrol’s James Favel said the man was on his way to their new location where construction is ongoing.
“It was one of the contractors that works in our building,” Favel said. “So that’s kind of scary.”
Skrabek said the Major Crimes Unit is investigating but couldn’t confirm if the shooting was a gang initiation, as they don’t have a suspect at the moment.
“In the past we have had incidents where we have had random shootings, random attacks on people that have been confirmed gang initiations,” Const. Skrabek said. “In this case, not knowing who the suspects are, what the intentions are, we haven’t been able to confirm it but in the same time we cant rule it out.”
– With files from Lauren McNabb and Brittany Greenslade
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