2 men dead in St-Georges double homicide, RCMP say
Men's bodies found inside Manitoba home around 2 a.m. Tuesday
Residents of the small Manitoba community of St-Georges are reeling after two men were found dead in what RCMP are describing as a double homicide.
Police say they were called to a home around 2 a.m. Tuesday and found the bodies of the men, age 35 and 43.
Officers have remained at the scene for much of the day, cordoning off a house at the end of a short, quiet street, along with a small park nearby. The bodies were removed from the house in the afternoon.
"It's a very sad, sad day," said Raymond Garand, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Alexander.
"You don't want to see this anywhere. It doesn't matter where you're from, you don't want to see these kind of things."
Police have not released the victims' names, but people living in St-Georges — with a population of about 100 people — described the pair as good friends who were from the area and lived in the house together.
Garand said both men worked "odd and ends" in the community and both men had children.
"You feel for the families to no end because the families, they're going to hurt forever," he said.
St-Georges is located 100 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, near Pine Falls-Powerview, Man.
Police say there is no public safety threat to the community, but the local school locked all of its doors on Tuesday as a precaution.
"The community is shocked. Families are affected," said Trisha Dubé, the principal at École communautaire St-Georges, a kindergarten to Grade 12 school with about 50 students.
Dubé said school officials have contacted the RCMP and the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine to see what procedures they should follow in light of the homicides.
With files from Meagan Fiddler and Samuel Rancourt