Serious crash on CentrePort Way
7:41 PM
City police were on the scene of a serious collision on CentrePort Canada Way Wednesday evening, where a silver sedan was seen trapped beneath the rear end of a tractor-trailer.
The accident occurred in the highway’s westbound lanes, roughly one kilometre west of the Sturgeon Access road.
By 6:30 p.m., at least a half-dozen Winnipeg Police Service members, including traffic investigators, were working to assess the scene. Meanwhile, police cadets diverted westbound traffic at the intersection of the Sturgeon Access road and CentrePort Way.
The front end of the sedan was completely destroyed in the collision, with only the back doors remaining visible from the roadside. The tractor-trailer, a Bison Transport truck, appeared relatively unharmed.
The WPS public information office was closed when the Free Press requested comment. It is unclear what time the accident happened, or whether anybody was injured as a result.
Man accused of brandishing knives in grocery store lot arrested
1:29 PM
A man accused of brandishing knives while threatening people in a grocery store parking lot on Saturday afternoon has been arrested.
Two victims approached Winnipeg Police Service officers working special duty at a grocery store on the 1500 block of Regent Avenue West at about 1:30 p.m. to advise they’d been approached by the armed man outside.
Police went to the lot and found the man. While searching him, they found two knives, police said.
Police determined the man had approached the victims, a man and a woman both aged 56, and threatened them while holding the knives.
Francois Roger Bighetty, 56, of Winnipeg, has been charged with two counts each of assault with a weapon and uttering threats, as well as five counts of fail to comply with a probation order. He was detained.
Lipton Street death classified as homicide, man arrested
1:14 PM
The death of a man in the rear lane of Lipton Street in Winnipeg’s West End last September has been classified as a homicide.
Winnipeg police had past deemed the death on Sept. 11 last year as suspicious, though homicide detectives were investigating.
The man, now identified publicly as 56-year-old Robert Wayne Billings, was found badly injured in the alley between Sargent and Ellice avenues at about 4:30 p.m. and later died in hospital.
On Wednesday, police announced Billings’ death was a homicide. Christopher Michael Gatehouse, 43, was charged with manslaughter after he was arrested at a home on St. Paul Avenue on Tuesday.
He’s been detained. Police say he did not know Billings.
Mounties seek Portage la Prairie abduction suspects
12:06 PM
RCMP are searching for a pair of women accused of abducting a 28-year-old and holding her against her will while assaulting her in Portage la Prairie.
Police have warrants for Carrie Bearbull, 45 of Portage, and Kelsey Meeches, 35 of Long Plain First Nation. They’re wanted for kidnapping without a firearm, forcible confinement and assault.
Mounties were tipped off about the abduction via social media last Thursday morning. RCMP learned that the victim, a woman who knew the two alleged attackers, had been dragged from her home and put into an SUV.
Officers went to Dakota Tipi First Nation, where they were able to identify the vehicle with the help of community members. Mounties then went to a home in Portage, where they found the vehicle outside and the victim inside.
RCMP took the victim to the detachment, where she confirmed she’d been abducted and assaulted.
Mounties ask anyone with information about Bearbull and Meeches to call the Portage detachment at 204-857-4445 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.
