'You shouldn't spill your family's blood': Woman dies after family party turns violent
CBC News | Posted: December 1, 2017 1:03 PM | Last Updated: December 1, 2017
At one point, about a dozen police vehicles were in the area, including the tactical team and canine unit
One person is dead and another is in critical condition after a violent family clash that spilled across a number of Winnipeg streets on Thursday night.
Officers were called to a two-storey rooming house on William Avenue, near Gertie Street, just after 6:30 p.m.
An unconscious woman was found and rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. It is the city's 24th homicide of the year.
A man was also found, suffering from serious injuries. He was given first aid then sent to hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
At one point, about a dozen police vehicles were in the area on Thursday night, including members of the tactical response team and canine unit.
The investigation covered a wide area, extending from the rooming house all the way to the University of Winnipeg campus and to Balmoral Street and St. Mary Avenue.
A handful of police vehicles remain in front of the rooming house on Friday morning and a spokesperson for the police service said they will likely be there for quite some time.
Several people are in custody for questioning but police have not released any information on what exactly happened or how the man and woman were injured.
I knew, as soon as they came in with all the liquor they had, that there was something going to happen. - Robert (Bear) Rodericks
A neighbour, however, told CBC News it was a stabbing.
"It was a pretty big scrap. I don't know what they were scrapping about, but it turned into a very violent scene, where people were getting slammed around and things were getting thrown, things were getting smashed," said Robert (Bear) Rodericks, an anti-gang advocate in the area who lives in the lower level of the rooming house.
"I thought it was just maybe a fight and a stabbing and now, knowing that someone has passed away … I'm in shock."
He said the family on the upper level had been partying for a couple of days before things went out of control.
"I knew, as soon as they came in with all the liquor they had, that there was something going to happen," Rodericks said.
After listening to screaming and crashing, Rodericks said he ran upstairs to intervene and saw blood on the floor.
"I wasn't quick enough to get up there and that kind of bothers me, because I try to help everybody that I can," he said. "But everything already happened. It was just too late."
Rodericks said he jumped between a man who was yelling and two young women who were crying. He took the girls to his suite until police arrived.
"The troubling part about this is it's family. Family shouldn't be fighting family. Family shouldn't be hating family," he said. "You shouldn't spill your family's blood."