Four Winnipeggers are in custody after a bizarre incident on Magnus Avenue that police say escalated from a bear spray fight to a shooting involving a CO2 gun.
Police said the incident, which took place Monday at about 4:20 p.m., started with a report of several people fighting and shots fired.
According to police, it started when one of the suspects went to a home in the 500 block of Magnus Avenue and sprayed another man with bear spray. That man then grabbed his own can of bear spray, chased the suspect out of the house and blasted him.
The pair began to “exchange blasts of bear spray” on the street until one of them produced a CO2 firearm and fired multiple rounds at the other. The chaotic scene continued as others joined the fray, resulting in more shots fired.
One of the shots, police said, shattered the window of a nearby vehicle. One suspect was shot in the lower body but wasn’t seriously hurt.
The Tactical Support Team tracked the suspects with the help of a K-9 unit and arrested one person behind a nearby residence, two in a garage at the same location, and a fourth person in the house where the incident started.
Police found and nabbed a sawed-off bolt-action rifle in the garage.
Damon Charles Shabaquay, 21, is facing 16 charges, ranging from careless storage of a firearm to discharging a restricted firearm with intent.
Police also charged Brandon Dean Woodhouse, 21 and Charles Clayton Shabaquay, 45, with a number of similar offences. A 16-year-old girl has also been arrested.
There’s a fifth suspect at large who is yet to be arrested, police said.
Const. Tammy Skrabek told 680 CJOB the admittedly confusing situation was a handful even for police investigators, but resolving it meant methodically figuring out who did what and when.
“Really, it’s breaking it down into what each person’s role was, who knew each other and obtaining witness information and breaking it down sometimes even to descriptions.
“This was in the middle of the day. It was heard. There were people who witnessed the interaction, so it’s really breaking it down into who did what and at what time, and really building from there until you have a complete picture into what actually transpired.”
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