The Winnipeg Police Service responded to a distress call involving a taxi driver at approximately 2:00 a.m. on December 13, 2024. Officers from the West District General Patrol were dispatched to the 1400 block of Notre Dame Avenue to check on the wellbeing of the driver after a reported dispute escalated into a violent altercation.
Upon arrival, officers learned that a 34-year-old male suspect had entered a taxi in the 1400 block of Notre Dame Avenue. Without provocation, the suspect began verbally abusing the 35-year-old driver and armed himself with the vehicle’s jack, which he retrieved from the trunk. The situation escalated when the taxi stopped near the intersection of St. James Street and Wellington Avenue. The victim called for assistance from another taxi operator and the police.
The suspect then exited the taxi, smashed the driver’s side window with the jack, and forcibly removed the driver from the vehicle. An attempt was made to further assault the driver with the jack, but no contact was made. The driver sustained a minor cut to his hand from broken glass but did not require medical attention.
The suspect pursued the driver to the awaiting taxi and struck the vehicle with the jack, causing damage to the trunk. Following this, the suspect fled in the victim’s unoccupied taxi but lost control and crashed into a snowbank in the 1400 block of St. James Street, rendering the vehicle inoperable. He then attempted to escape on foot but was apprehended by police nearby.
The suspect, a 34-year-old male from Winnipeg, faces multiple charges including robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, mischief over $5,000, and mischief under $5,000. He has been released on an Undertaking as mandated by the Criminal Code.
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