A Winnipeg woman escaped a home on Thursday, before an unwanted guest allegedly lit it on fire while trying to get away from police.
The ordeal started around 1:45 p.m. when a man, who was believed to be high on meth, crashed a vehicle he allegedly carjacked on the Nairn overpass. He threatened to shoot the officers, ran and entered a nearby home with four people inside.
Val Hontscharowicz was visiting her friends at the Nairn Avenue home when the man entered and barricaded himself inside. She was getting ready for a nap upstairs at the time.
“I heard the yelling downstairs,” Hontscharowicz said. “I didn’t know what the commotion was about and all of a sudden he’s standing above me and asking for drugs and money.”
She said it’s common for transient people to seek shelter every so often in the home, so she brushed it off. The same address was the scene of Winnipeg’s first homicide of 2019, when a man was shot and killed on New Year’s Day.
“I just put the covers over my head and just sat there and was quiet,” she recalled. “I guess I dozed off and went to sleep for a few hours.”
The other three people in the house had already escaped and escorted to a safe location by police.
A sleeping Hontscharowicz was the only one left inside with the suspect.
“I woke up to my name being called outside to let me out of the house,” she said.
Hontscharowicz said she cautiously made her way downstairs, peeking into every room along the way.
“I yelled and said, ‘Anybody here? Are you still here? Am I safe to come out?'”
The man inside didn’t respond, so Hontscharowicz slipped out.
“I opened up the back door and all of a sudden I get tackled by the swat team and they carried me down to the back lane to safety,” she said.
Shortly after 8 p.m., six hours and 40 minutes after the suspect entered the home, police said he lit the house on fire. He started yelling for help, saying that he was burning alive.
Officers forced their way in to save him.
“Officers approached this residence while it was on fire to pull somebody out of a residence that was threatening their colleagues just hours earlier,” Cst. Jay Murray told media on Friday.
“We certainly believe drugs played a role,” Murray said. “Specifically we’re looking into whether methamphetamine played a role or not.”
Police said the the house is considered a total loss.
Police have identified the suspect as Gordon William Kovich.
Kovic is facing a number of charges, which include breaking and entering, arson, uttering threats, failing to comply with probation, dangerous operation of a conveyance, operating a conveyance while prohibited, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, possession of property obtained by crime, and theft under $5,000.
Hontscharowicz said she’s just glad everyone involved is safe. Although she said she hasn’t been caught up in a standoff before, she said it was similar to how she would have imagined it.
“It’s like the movies. I thought I was in a movie.”