8 charged after assaults, threats against police officers and cadets over May long weekend

Winnipeg police say its officers and cadets were the targets of multiple violent incidents over the May long weekend.

Police said assaults ranged from being spat on, to being threatened with a machete. Some officers were headbutted and kicked.

Eight people in total were charged. Seven were charged with assaulting a peace officer, another was charged with uttering threats after threatening to kill two officers.

Police in Winnipeg are seeing rising levels of violence, and officers are not immune, said Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Rob Carver.

"We are at the forefront of that trying to deal with these situations as well," he said. "We are not always the first on scene, but we are in the thick of it. I think people realize in a lot of ways we are no different. We are at risk as well."

Officers threatened with machete, hammer, knives 

Police sent out a news release detailing the string of incidents on Tuesday.

The first incident happened Friday evening. Police said a 24-year-old man at the Main Street Project assaulted two cadets. Their injuries didn't need medical treatment and other officers were called to help arrest the suspect.

On Saturday just after 3 a.m., an officer leaving police headquarters on Smith Street saw two men assaulting a third male. When the officer tried to intervene, police said one of the suspects grabbed a bottle and the second suspect threatened the officer with a machete.

Even after the officer identified himself as police, the two continued to threaten him, according to police. The man who had been assaulted managed to get away and the officer made it back to the headquarters safely.

The two suspects were arrested in the area.

Later that morning around 5 a.m., officers responding to a domestic situation were threatened by a man with a hammer and knives.  Police said the man tried to choke one of the officers when they moved in to arrest him.

About an hour later in an unrelated call, police say an intoxicated woman who had been fighting with family members at a residence in east Winnipeg assaulted one of the officers who responded to the disturbance.

On Sunday around 11:20 a.m., officers with the guns and gangs unit encountered a male in the area of Salter Street and Burrows Avenue and tried to arrest him on several outstanding warrants. Police said the suspect fought back and tried to grab one of the officers' Tasers.  The suspect was taken to hospital because they believed he was under the influence of an intoxicant.

Police said three more incidents happened Monday, including one where police say a man spat on two cadets who were checking on his well-being.

None of the officers or suspects were seriously injured in any of the incidents, Carver said. The police service chose to highlight the incidents in order to give the public a sense of what police are dealing with.

"We were talking a lot in the last couple of months about increased levels of violence in the city, in general, and I think it's useful for the public to know that we're at the forefront of that trying to deal with these situations as well," he said.