Last night at around 11pm I was catching up on other Blogs when I heard a car door slam, then another and another and another...
I looked out my front door and counted atleast
20 Police cars!!,
3 Fire Engines and 5 Ambulances.
I ran out and found that our street, which is a busy thoroughfare here in Winnipeg, had been completely cordoned off.
I knew instantly that only one thing would bring that many Uniforms.. a Police Officer must have been injured or shot. I ran upstairs to tell my wife because you never see that many Cop Cars in one place at the same time..
it was like a scene in a movie.
This morning my backlane is filled with Police cars and on the National news I learned that
3 Police Officers had been shot.
All three are in the hospital with gunshot wounds..one with a leg wound, one in the hand and one seriously wounded by a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
One suspect was wounded and is in hospital.The Police had been serving a warrant to a house 6 doors down and almost directly across the street from our city's famous Bridge Drive In Ice Cream Parlor.
A neighbour that I met in the backlane told me that the occupants of the house were suspected of drug dealing. WTH! This is an ordinary working/middle class neighbourhood, 5 minutes from Downtown Winnipeg, where the streets are lined with beautiful, gigantic Elm trees.
This sort of thing has never ever happened here before. I hate to even think that something like this could happen in my neighbourhood, but it probably it happens in every neighbourhood doesn't it?.
Since the backlane is still closed off with Police tape and Forensic Vehicles, my wife had to walk over a block to meet her car pool ride. My son and I will have to cut through somebody's yard to get to school this morning. You can read about it here: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/story/3806709p-4402786c.html
I hope that those Officers are OK, their families must be living through their worst nightmare...hopefully none of the injured Policemen are guys that I went to school with.
All in all it's a little, no make that,
WAY TOO CLOSE TO HOME!
THE Michael said...
ReplyDeleteDo you guys have SWAT teams? I realize that you don't generally have a gun problem, but criminals will arm themselves no matter what the laws are.
Down here we handle these situations with overwealming force, even when it doesn't involved an officer down. In those cases we just NUC the entire neighborhood.
I am sending good vibs out to your peace officers. I hope like hell they scumbag who did it was captured and will be held accountable. He's lucky he didn't pull that shit down here. We fry them.
10:02 AM
homo escapeons said...
This guy is a neighbourhood kid..a neighbour from down the lane told me that his son said that the local kids knew that this guy was dealing..I had no idea.
It is right across the street from this amazing ice cream place that is packed every night from May to October with hundreds of people.
There is an old bridge that you can stroll across and look at the river..it's beautiful.
This little asshole probably went to school with my oldest daughter.
I am sure that the Cops had no idea that they would encounter armed resistance...I'm sure that their policy is about to change.
btw..I love watching those SWAT team shows..we do have one of course but like I said this was supposed to be routine.
I hope that they throw away the key!
10:23 AM
Steve said...
Hey Donn, Well Happy belated Birthday! I heard the news on CBC and then went to check online and they said Jubilee, so I figured you'd have the low down on the down low.... That's Crazy close to home dude. I hope the Officers are alright. South Osborne isn't the neibourhood you'd expect these behaviours, but I guess it can happen anywhere. I was in Toronto last year waiting for Suzea in front of the record store where a young girl was shot the next day in a random drive by shooting.
On a happier note, I love your blog, I check it out often, it's marked in my favorites. Have you seen Rick Mercer's blog, Don't know if you like the guy or not but he's got this funny photo contest. www.rickmercer.com
Lately i've Been busy getting my business up and running. Check out our website. www.stellerseakayaking.com or email me at steve@stellerseakayaking.com
Take Care and say hi to Ridley and Alice!
Cheers,
Steve
10:41 AM
Brian the Mennonite said...
No kidding...way too close.
When I heard it on the news this morning and that it happened on Jubilee, I wondered how close it was going to be to your place. 6 doors down...that's wicked. And in that neighbourhood too! Kind of reminds me of living on the three hundred block on 11th street in Brandon.
11:49 AM
AnonymousBlogger said...
Yeah, I heard on the news this morning that 3 officers were shot in Winnipeg. What a coincidence that it happened right in your neighbourhood!
It has to be kind of exciting to see that unfold right from inside your house though. I mean, it's like a real-life episode of COPS.
Keep us updated on any news.
3:46 PM
Joyce said...
ReplyDeletewow. And I thought that it was exciting to watch that adolescent puke on your no parking sign.
There goes the neighborhood.
4:29 PM
Aidan said...
Just as long as you are alright:)
My thoughts are with the copper's families.... I wouldnt wish that on anyone.
4:47 PM
Stace said...
Wow, that's full-on HE. Hope everything's ok for you and your family; these things can cause significant stress even if you're not directly involved.
Our own little "too close to home" is the bushfires at the moment... we awoke this morning to find the whole city covered in smoke, it's a bit disturbing but I don't think we're at too much risk just here.
5:01 PM
dinahmow said...
one of the reasons I left London (UK)...my thoughts to all of you good people in the area. Take care.
6:55 PM
***sorry about the oddities in the comment section but I had to delete somethings...
ReplyDeleteDude, you missed a golden opportunity to go rob something. The entire Winnipeg police force was on your block = best time to procure yourself a new TV!
ReplyDelete(kidding. i hope the cops are all ok. lately i really empathize with women who marry men with dangerous jobs.)
steve THE DUDE!,
ReplyDeleteGreat to here from you. Hope everything is fine out on the Westie. I will absolutely check out your site. Big kiss to S.
Stay in touch.
B the M,
HA! Those were the good old days in the wild, wild west. I recall the odd disturbance occuring there and I was hardly ever involved..
honest!
Thanks again for the BDay R.U.M!
I look forward to your big
4 point 0!
ambulancechasingblogger,
It was more frightening than exciting because I didn't know what was happening...I mean it looked like a terrorist attack was in progress. I missed the initial mayhem by about 5 minutes and walked out my front door just as the calvary arrived...it was quite amazing.
joyce,
..and to think that is what the neighbours said when I moved in to the neighbourhood. Now it is the safest place in town..there are still Cops everywhere.
aidan,
Aparently they are all going to be OK but one of those poor fellows lost part of his hand from a shotgun blast. This is far from over and the media is going to dig up a lot more stuff..the accused Mother and Girlfriend were in the house at the time..the lawyer for the accused says that his client did not know that these men were Police Officers..now the he said he said starts.
stace,
I saw news about the fires..it is hard to think about dry heat when you are staring outside at snow..except that is is nice and warm out..it's a balmy 0 degrees, which is warm for this time of year!
dinahmow,
I hear you..we have never had an incident of this magnitude in the city's history never mind our little neck of the woods. I imagine that it will be very quiet around here for the next couple of months...we have big drug busts every summer out in the countryside..mainly in our little bible belt if you can believe it.
chaucer's bitch,
ReplyDeleteDOH! Yes what a diversion..except that I don't know how to open safes!
This incident will be played out in public for a couple of months before we get to a real trial..so I will return to my regular scheduled frivolity asap.
The media has made the jump to the next event.. POOF!
All of the trucks and reporters are chasing the NEXT thing...gotta feed the machine.
I've read this a couple times now and heard it on the news here. Hope you've recovered. I had to just leave a third viewing of Saving Private Ryan -- a movie that puts all things in perspective!
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised at all. A quiet unsuspecting neighborhood is the perfect setting for drug distribution. How do I know that? Because in the USA's fourth largest city, that is where the busts happen. It is also very convenient for drug dealers to choose a neighborhood where everyone just mind their own business and is not into neighborhood watch or community activities. These are usually the working class or professional's neighborhoods, the ones where they go to work, come home and keep their garage doors, gates and doors closed until they repeat the routine the following day. The least each neighbor know about each other the better it is for drug dealers and other criminals to exist.
ReplyDeleteWhew! When your "drug heist" post disappeared I thought: "O, no! He's been implicated and they've snaffled his hard drive as evidence!"
ReplyDeleteCes is perfectly right.The less obvious is the most likely.I came home from a night shift once to find the street door broken and a WPC blocking my entry.Why? They'd pulled a surprise raid on an alleged grass grower on the top floor.All the rest of us tenants were totally unaware!(But man! did they look hard at my begonias!)
Wow. I can't believe they shot three cops. What were they thinking??! I'm glad no innocent bystanders were hurt - especially children.
ReplyDeleteWow! When you see them on the news, things like this seem so remote, but when they happen in your backyard, they bring daily reality home!
ReplyDeleteYep, definitely too close for comfort!
andrea,
ReplyDelete3rd viewing of Saving Private Ryan?
The first twenty minutes of SPR, the opening scene,is one of the greatest in film history...I remember being speechless...and then the next 2 hours of the emotional exploration of war and the entire absurdity of how other wordly it is was brilliantly handled by Speilberg.
ces,
Well this isn't exactly yuppyville..we know most of our neighbours and during the warm seasons we have occasional gettogethers but during the winters we all go into semi-hibernation...it can get to be 35 below zero and there is only daylight from 9 -5.
How many neighbourhoods exist where the majority of people don't go to work and then bolt the doors and coccoon at night?
dinahmow,
Were your 'Begonias' about five feet tall with long narrow serrated leaves? The police recently raided an apartment block with the same MO..nobody in the building had any idea..our local Electric Company works with the Police by divulging the names and addresses of users who need exhorbitant amounts of power...so we turn off lights whenever thay aren't being used to avoid suspiscion.
anna,
The story is unfolding that this kid locked himself in the bathroom because he thought some 'bad' guys were robbing them! He then fired his Dad's shotgun through the door! Now his Defense lawyers are putting the Police on trial in the court of Public Opinion.
Cream,
Luv the avatar!!!
That is what I thought about..every news story is REAL LIFE to somebody but we are so desensitized from hearing all of the bad news that we hear/read/watch all of the time that we ignore it.
holy shite, Homey! That's no good. I'm glad things weren't worse than that. You'd be surprised at how much drug dealing goes on in residential neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteMy auntie lives in a miniscule town of 200 people in the farthest north you can be, Minnesota, without actually being Canadian. There was a trailer on the outskirts of the town where they were making Meth for ages before being busted.
It can happen anywhere. I'm just surprised the locals didn't handle it themselves. :|
HEY!!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, YOU OLD GUY!! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe Sagittarians need to stick together. :) I'm so old too, after last night. And I'm not talkin about the effect of the margaritas!!!!
I'm in serious double-digits now, or, still, or something.
/grin
Hope it was fun.
o thats no good. Such scenes freak me out!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
This reminds me of the time when I was a spectator in a police encounter. Here I was impatiently tapping for the lights to change when I saw a police car zooming following a non-descriptive car. Gun-shots were exchanged and criminal was finally killed. He was a terrorist. I finally understood the meaning of shell-shocked!
ReplyDeleteHope the policemen are ok.
ReplyDeleteWell finally a few minutes to type with my new and supposed to be improved wireless keyboard. When i 1st heard about the police issue on Jubille i thought man Donn knows how to celebrate but got a little carried away with his birthday. Then i got to thinking about all the kids that hung out at our place and did we know the kids. Lo and behold we do. The details not having been released yet at the time of my writing i feel for both sides because i don't know all the facts. However i can say i'm glad we got outta dodge cuz that just scary. Too many questions and will the truth come out....I hope so.
ReplyDeleteHave you heard about the Indoor Pot Farmers Association of Georgia? Gangs are buying into upscale neighborhoods and converting entire houses into mechanized, hydroponic pot farms. Since the cops have caught on, they are knocking themselves out to bag these houses because the arresting departments get to keep the houses, cars, etc. under the RICO act. Now they are cruising the neighborhoods at night using infrared technology to find houses "leaking" more heat than it's neighbors. It's like the wild west down here.
ReplyDelete