In the span of about an hour Monday morning, three people were taken to hospital after three serious incidents in Point Douglas that police believe are all related.
The first one happened at around 4:30 a.m., when officers found a man with serious injuries in a parking lot in the 800 block of Main Street. He was taken to hospital in critical condition.
At around 5 a.m., officers found an injured man in the 600 block of Main Street and he was taken to hospital in unstable condition.
And then at around 5:30 a.m., police in the area of Logan Avenue and the Disraeli Freeway found an injured man who said he’d been assaulted. He was taken to hospital in stable condition.
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No arrests have been made and police are asking anyone with information to call the Major Crimes Unit at 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.
Constable Dani McKinnon would not get into details on the assaults, but did say guns were not involved. She says police have increased resources in the area, trying to catch the culprits.
“Even in the late hours, even when businesses are closed, these areas see a lot of pedestrians,” McKinnon told 680 CJOB. “There are people that are displaced, and frequent the areas. There are people who continue to come in and out of the hotels in that area and we just wanted people to be aware that police are investigating this very seriously.”
Point Douglas community activist Sel Burrows says the violence took place near what he considers two “crime centres” in the area and he says police need more tools to help stop the crime before it happens.
“People in most communities know where the gang houses are, where the drug houses are, where the places where people commit criminal offences gather,” Burrows said. “We need to figure out ways that we can minimize the impact of those places.”
Burrows says he will be meeting with property management companies at apartments to discuss how they can get caretakers or tenants to identify drug dealers and stop them on the spot in what he calls an “eyes on the hallway” initiative.