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Darren Bernhardt
Saturday December 30, 2023
Woman being held hostage not injured, 2nd woman, child released before shooting, 1 man escaped on balcony
A man shot dead by Winnipeg officers during a hostage situation in the city’s West Broadway area on Thursday was a suspect in the death of a missing trucker from British Columbia, police say.
Officers were called around 1:45 p.m. to an apartment block the corner of Furby Street and Cornish Avenue about a 19-year-old woman being held captive by a man armed with an edged weapon.
The man barricaded himself and the woman inside a suite where two other adults and a child were also being held against their will, police Chief Danny Smyth said.
Eventually, a 33-year-old woman and a three-year-old child were released from the suite, and a 23-year-old man escaped by scaling down the exterior of the building from a third-floor balcony.
All three were all taken into the care of the tactical support team (TAC) while the initial hostage remained in the suite with the armed man.
The TAC team’s crisis negotiators were able to talk with the man and determined the woman’s life was in imminent danger as he would not allow her to leave.
Just after 5 p.m. the TAC team broke into the suite, during which the man was shot and killed, Smyth said. The woman was not injured.
Smyth said the man was a suspect in the death of Farah Ali Mohamud, 34, a long-haul truck driver from British Columbia, who was reported missing shortly after arriving in Winnipeg with a load on Dec. 22.
He was scheduled to pick up another load Saturday morning when his truck was found in the parking lot behind the Sherbrook Inn, about a block away from the apartment on Furby.
Mohamud’s body was found on Boxing Day inside a fifth-floor suite of the apartment, police said Friday. Initially, they told media earlier in the week that his body had been found in a house in the neighbourhood.
Mohamud, a father to three young children, moved to Canada from Somalia in 2011, according to his father, Ali, who spoke with CBC News on Tuesday after driving to Winnipeg from Edmonton to search for his son.
Homicide victim not logged into app when truck moving: source
Mohamud finished making a delivery in Winnipeg Friday morning and parked at a Flying J Travel Centre to rest, said a source with knowledge of the victim’s itinerary.
CBC is not naming the source because they are worried about their job.
Hours later, the truck began moving again, but Mohamud wasn’t logged into an app on his phone that allows the driver to operate the vehicle, the source said.
The source also said the truck went to downtown Winnipeg — an area which Mohamud wasn’t familiar with and wasn’t required to be in — and made several stops before stopping in the parking lot behind the Sherbrook Inn.
The source also said Mohamud had no family in Winnipeg either.
Police tried to calm situation, building resident says
The name of the hostage-taker has not been released as his next-of-kin have yet to be informed, Smyth said.
The man, 52, was well-known to police with an extensive criminal record for violence and weapons offences, Smyth said.
Dennis Scullard, who lives three doors down from where the incident happened, said he heard a woman and man screaming from down the hall in the afternoon. Scullard said a suite is now taped off and residents can’t use the elevator.
Scullard also said police were trying to talk a man out of the nearby suite and that “for a good chunk of time,” he thinks it was two different officers talking to him and trying to calm the situation.
“There’s been a lot of police officers,” he said. “I could see there was tactical officers in the hallways, there was regular police officers, There’s been a lot of people in and out of this building the last couple days.”
It is not clear whether the man knew the people he held captive, but he was frequently at the building so it is possible, Smyth said, adding police are not sure whether he lived there.
Police are not releasing any additional information on the hostage incident, which is now being examined by the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba. Witnesses or individuals with information or video footage are asked to contact the IIU at 1-844-667-6060.
Mohamud’s death is being investigated by the police and anyone with information on that is asked to call the homicide unit at 204-986-6508.
Anonymous tips can be called in to Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477) or submitted through the Crime Stoppers website.
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