Manitoba

Man arrested after woman groped on Winnipeg bus, elementary school student punched

Police have arrested a man accused of groping a passenger on a Winnipeg Transit bus last month, saying the same man also punched an elementary school student on Tuesday morning.

31-year-old was arrested near Transcona school where student was assaulted Tuesday morning, police say

Close-up of the front of a Winnipeg bus.
A woman told police she was groped by a man on a Winnipeg Transit bus on Sept. 25. Police allege that in an unrelated incident, the same man punched a student near an elementary school on Tuesday. (CBC)

Police have arrested a man accused of sexually assaulting a passenger on a Winnipeg Transit bus last month and punching an elementary school student on Tuesday morning in an unrelated incident.

Around 6 p.m. on Sept. 25, a woman was groped on a bus travelling east on Regent Avenue by a man she didn't know, police said in a news release Wednesday.

The woman confronted the passenger and informed the driver, and made a police report the next day.

Around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, police went to a school in Transcona after receiving a report that an elementary school student had been punched by a man as the student walked by the school.

School officials intervened and called police.

The child, who received a minor injury, was treated and released by paramedics.

Shortly after being called to the school, police found a suspect nearby and arrested him.

Sex crimes unit officers who were investigating the Sept. 25 sexual assault on the bus believe the man accused of punching the student was the same man who groped the woman.

The 31-year-old was charged with sexual assault and assault and released, police said.

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