A man found gravely injured on a North End sidewalk Christmas morning is Winnipeg’s latest homicide victim.
Police general patrol officers found the man, Gordon Edward Pashe, 37, on the sidewalk at the corner of Salter Street and Redwood Avenue around 10:20 a.m.
Pashe was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Rob Carver couldn’t say exactly how Pashe was killed or whether a weapon was used, but did say he had been assaulted shortly before officers drove by and noticed him.
A number of police units — including the tactical support team and the force’s armoured vehicle — were called to a report of a man with a gun at a home the 300 block of Redwood Avenue after Pashe was found, but Carver couldn’t say if the situations are related.
“We did not locate an armed individual … we had four people taken out of the residence, but no charges were laid,” he told media Friday, adding officers investigating the homicide were directed to the home by neighbors, who reported seeing a man with a gun.
“We think they’re potentially related, but at this point, I can’t give you more details until we get closer to an arrest — and we’re not at that stage yet.”
No arrests have been made in Pashe’s death, but Carver said homicide investigators “have moved forward to a point where they’re looking at some individuals specifically.
“I can’t give you any more details at this point,” he said.
Carver said Pashe was known to police, said investigators believe both the killing and subsequent gun call are gang related.
The killing is the 43rd in what has been a violent year on city streets.
Winnipeg broke the record for the most homicides in a single year — previously set at 41 in 2011 — last week when police said Douglas Wood, 41, died in the 500 block of Pritchard Avenue on Halloween during a house fire that they believe was deliberately set.
Jenna Sereena Kakegamick, 23, faces charges of second-degree murder and arson with disregard for human life in that case.
Before Pashe’s death seven homicides remained unsolved so far this year.
Carver acknowledged 2019 has been an unprecedentedly violent year in Winnipeg.
“Forty-three is a record for the city, a record that no one wants to have,” he said.
“It’s terrible, but given the sort of frequency and the way the numbers have been coming out I don’t think myself or my colleagues were shocked.”
A surge in violence earlier this fall prompted Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman and Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister to have separate conversations about the issue with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Police Chief Danny Smyth has said about one-third of the city’s homicides are drug- or gang-related, and are linked to addictions and a trade in methamphetamine.
Police ask anyone with information on Pashe’s death to call Homicide investigators at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS.
–With files from The Canadian Press