The brother of a man killed in a shooting at an Exchange District nightclub last fall is now charged with first-degree murder in what police say was a retaliatory killing of the man whom officers believe killed his brother.
Police previously said an ongoing feud between gangs led to the outbreak of gang violence that killed Jamshaid Wahabi, 23, at Citizen Nightclub on Bannatyne Avenue on Nov. 2.
Wahabi was shot multiple times in the incident, which started in the nightclub before spilling out into the street around 1:30 a.m. Another man was shot in the lower body but survived.
Two days later, Rig Debak Moulebou, 20, was found shot and killed at a townhouse in the South Pointe neighbourhood.
Wahabi was the city’s 38th killing of the year, and Moulebou’s death was the 40th of 2019 — a year that saw a record-breaking 44 homicides in the city.
In January, Arnold Mbaka Nduta, 23, of Winnipeg, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Moulebou’s death, but at the time, police did not release any further details about the case.
That changed last month when police announced two more arrests and revealed investigators believe the three suspects killed Moulebou in retaliation for Wahabi’s homicide at the now-closed nightclub.
Abdullahi Abdulrehman Mohamed, 23, was arrested on Feb. 28, and Manuchehr Haroon, 23, was arrested in Brandon, Man., on March 2. Both were charged with first-degree murder.
On Thursday, police said a fourth man has since been arrested in connection with Moulebou’s death.
Javaid Wahabi, 23, of Winnipeg, is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Jay Murray tells Global News Javaid is Jamshaid Wahabi’s brother, and investigators believe he was the ringleader in an alleged plan to avenge his brother’s death.
None of the allegations against any of the accused have been proven in court.
Murray has previously said both killings — along with the continued violence — are a result of a feud between two local gangs.
Murray wouldn’t say which gangs the two men were part of but noted both groups are made up primarily of newcomers.
“Beyond the scope of these two homicides, there’s been shootings, there’s been other types of violence,” he told reporters at a press conference last month.
“Currently, these two groups are feuding, (and) a lot of the members in these groups are transient — they switch their allegiances, perhaps overnight.
“It can be very dynamic, but there is certainly a level of increased violence that we’ve seen from these groups since the first homicide.”