Man charged following armed standoff with police
An armed standoff between police and a man who allegedly fired shots at a house in the Point Douglas neighbourhood Saturday included 10 hours of negotiations and even the handing off of water bottles to the gunman to counteract the heat, police say.
Police told reporters Sunday that a man armed with a shotgun had shot at a home in the 100 block of Grove Street just after 5 a.m. the day before going under the Disraeli Bridge near Sutherland, where he was met by police. He refused to give up his weapon and police blocked off vehicle, pedestrian and — in an unusual move from the Winnipeg Police Service — boat traffic in the surrounding area.
WPS Const. Dani MacKinnon said the man shot at the house after a dispute with people living in the home and no one was injured. Police spoke with the man over the 10 hours and ensured he had water during the heat. He was arrested without incident at 3:23 p.m.
'It was a long, tense scenario for the entire community, for the police, for the person involved, the families, all the residents in the area … overall, (it was) a really good resolution, despite it taking some time,' MacKinnon said Sunday.
Daniel Emrys Larsen, 36, was arrested and charged with a number of offences, including possession and reckless discharge of a weapon. He is known to police and was considered 'unlawfully at large' due to violating his parole at the time of the incident.
MacKinnon did not say if the man surrendered to police but described him as 'in distress.'
'For somebody to be armed and not able to come to resolution sooner than later, there's obviously some difficulties occurring, and police managed it the way they're trained to crisis negotiation,' she said.
Meanwhile, police said Sunday they had arrested five people after a man was seen pointing a handgun at passing cars in the William Whyte neighbourhood Thursday morning.
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Police were called after a man was seen pointing a hand gun at passing cars in the area of Burrows Avenue and McKenzie Street just after 8:30 a.m. June 12.
Officers saw him run into a home in the 600 block of Alfred Avenue and five people in the home were arrested. A search warrant for the home resulted in the seizure of a 12-gauge shotgun, a pellet gun, a large quantity of ammunition, various firearms components, and body armour.
George Angus Okemow, 39, Brendan Elice Okemow, 26, and Michelle Maybelyne Okemow, 38, all face firearms charges. Brendan Elice Okemow also faces disturbance-related charges.
A 36-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man were also charged with firearms offences and released on undertakings.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak AbasReporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
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