Man charged in connection with 5 sexual assaults along Winnipeg river trail system

A man arrested in late August for a sexual assault against a girl on Winnipeg's river trail system is now charged in connection with four more attacks on women.

Jordan Andrew Bruyere, 29, was initially charged in connection with an assault on Aug. 8, when a 15-year-old girl was walking on the trail near Churchill High School in the Riverview neighbourhood.

She was grabbed by a man she didn't know and sexually assaulted before she got free and ran away.

At the time of Bruyere's arrest, police said they were looking at the possibility he was involved in the other assaults, which date back to April. On Friday, police said Bruyere was charged with those other assaults.

The first occurred around 8 p.m. April 8. A woman in her 30s was walking the trail east of the legislative grounds when she was attacked from behind and pulled to the ground by a man armed with a knife, police spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon said.

The woman struggled and screamed until she got free and ran away.

Around 4:30 a.m. on June 4, a woman in her 20s was walking along Assiniboine Avenue near the Donald Street bridge when she asked a man walking nearby if she could borrow his phone.

He agreed but told her there was a better WiFi connection closer to the bridge. Once there, he grabbed the woman from behind and dragged her down to the riverbank at knifepoint, McKinnon said.

The woman was sexually assaulted and the man then ran off.

Then on June 12, around 5:30 p.m., a woman in her 20s was walking on the river trail along Churchill Drive, near Cockburn Street South, when she was attacked from behind and pulled to the ground.

The woman screamed until the man let go of her and she ran away.

The next assault was the attack on the 15-year-old.

Later the same day, around 6 p.m., a woman in her 20s was running on the river trail near near Stradbrook and Harkness avenues when a man came up from the riverbank, grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the ground. She, too, screamed and was able to escape.

Bruyere was arrested on Thursday and charged in connection with the four additional assaults.

Police are not currently investigating any other assaults along the trail but McKinnon said there is always the possibility that more people could come forward.