An annual jungle party for recent graduates turned into a major crime scene over the weekend after a teenager was stabbed to death in a remote area of Winnipeg’s Charleswood neighborhood.
Winnipeg police say they arrived at Community Row and Wilkes Avenue shortly after 12:39 a.m. Saturday after learning of a stabbing.
Officers didn’t immediately find anyone there, but after driving two miles down the gravel road of Community Row, a group of teenagers waved them over, WPS Const. Jay Murray said at a news conference on Monday.
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Two officers, equipped with medical supplies, walked with them through about a kilometer of thick bush and muddy terrain to reach the 18-year-old victim, who was critically injured with stab wounds.
“I can tell you they were pretty severe,” Murray said.
The couple stabilized the young man using bandages and chest seals with the help of emergency medical personnel and more police, before taking turns carrying him back to an ambulance on Community Row, he said.
“When they arrived at the hospital, our officers were told that had those attempts to stabilize not occurred, this would have been a homicide.”
Fortunately, the youngster was upgraded from critical to stable condition, Murray said.
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It’s one of many stabbings involving youths in recent weeks, though the number of violent crimes using such weapons is rising in adults and teens alike, he said.
Last year, the city counted nearly 1,200 knife-related incidents compared to 470 firearm-related incidents.
Experts say the former is the most widely used weapon in juvenile delinquency, and accessibility may be a contributing factor.
“Since the late 1990s or early 2000s, Winnipeg has had a notorious reputation for being the city with the highest rate of violent crime involving a knife,” Kelly Gorkoff of the University of Winnipeg told Global News on Monday.
“Most people in those kinds of marginalized situations, especially young people, are going to have knives with them as a way to protect themselves,” said Gorkoff, chairman of the university’s criminal justice department.
“Now, they are being used, I think, in a much more public way,” he said. “It’s much more visible.”
The Major Crimes Unit is speaking with several witnesses who were there in the early hours of Saturday morning and is making progress on the case, Murray said.
However, no arrests have been made.
Winnipeg police are asking anyone with information to contact them or Crime Stoppers.
— with archives of Marney Blunt
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