Two people are dead and a woman who was stabbed at Seven Oaks Hospital is fighting her life after what police now say were likely three related crimes Wednesday.
Global News has confirmed the homicide victims — one in Winnipeg and another from southern Manitoba — are the parents of the man police have accused in their killings.
Winnipeg police got involved around 1:30 p.m. when RCMP called about a homicide in New Bothwell, Man. where a 73-year-old woman had been found dead in a home less than an hour earlier.
RCMP warned city police they believed the suspect in that killing was heading to Winnipeg.
Winnipeg police say officers were heading to the area of Leila Avenue and McPhillips Street, where they believed they would find the suspect, when they were rerouted to the report of a stabbing at nearby Seven Oaks Hospital around 2:30 p.m.
When police arrived at the hospital, they found a woman in her 60s who had been “seriously injured.” Police say hospital personnel were providing trauma first-aid.
The woman was transported to hospital in critical condition, where health officials say she remains in stable but critical condition following surgery Thursday.
A man in his 30s was taken into custody. Police have not named the suspect.
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority president and CEO Mike Nader later confirmed the man is also an employee at Seven Oaks Hospital, but he wasn’t working at the time of the attack.
Nader said he did not know a reason for the attack. The victim was not a direct supervisor of the suspect.
The victim was “down in the atrium, having a chat with one of their colleagues — and wrong place, wrong time,” he said.
Part of the attack was briefly heard over the hospital intercom, he added.
“As the incident was occurring, one of the staff members called what’s called a code blue — which is to say that there’s an injured individual — and so some people throughout the hospital were able to hear what was going on at that time.”
Later in the evening Wednesday , RCMP headed to a home at 310 Toronto St. as part of their investigation into the homicide in New Bothwell and found a man in his 70s, dead. Winnipeg police were still at that scene Thursday, including detectives and the Identification Unit.
Winnipeg police and RCMP say they believe the same suspect is responsible for the the homicides and the assault at the hospital, but wouldn’t discuss a possible motive Thursday.
“This investigation is still in its infancy, really, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said WPS spokesperson, Const. Dani McKinnon.
“It’s not often that we have three massive events that are related, so there’s a lot to piece together here at this time.”
The suspect is “undergoing medical assessment” at hospital, police said, and no charges have been laid.
Police said the suspect was known to all three victims, but neither the RCMP nor Winnipeg police would provide details about their relationships.
‘An unprecedented situation’
Nader told Global News Thursday morning his team is cooperating with police, who remained at the hospital into the evening Wednesday.
At a press conference later in the day Thursday Nader said the victim is a long-time employee with the WRHA who is well loved by her colleagues.
“We’re just really, really happy that she’s out of surgery and at this point in time we understand she’s stable,” he said.
Nader said the hospital had returned to normal operations Thursday afternoon after some entrances were closed and visitation was restricted Wednesday.
Normal visitation hours were resumed by 2 p.m. Thursday, he said.
Nader said the hospital has hired extra security and his team are going to review the incident and to learn what they could have done differently to keep patients and staff safe. He said supports have been set up for staff and others who were in the atrium at the time of the attack.
Nader said the hospital wasn’t alerted by police about a potentially dangerous person in the area, but added he doesn’t think the incident could have been prevented.
“This was really just an unprecedented situation,” he said.
“Literally what happened is the individual came in, past our screeners, and proceeded to assault this individual. It was not anything that anybody could have anticipated.”
Nader said the assault lasted a matter of minutes before hospital staff were able to jump in and stop the attacker.
“Hospital staff reacted immediately and were able to care for their co-worker,” he said. “It was an amazing response, they rushed her to the urgent care and then they were rushed off to receive surgery.”
Anyone with information about the assault or the homicides is asked to call Winnipeg police at 204-986-6508, RCMP at 431-489-8105, or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS.
–With files from Elisha Dacey and The Canadian Press
Comments