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A man is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head while city police try to find the suspect who pulled the trigger on a North End street.
Incredibly fortunate for the 25-year-old victim is that the shooting on Friday night on Alfred Avenue appears to have somehow caused a relatively minor wound.
Police spokeswoman Const. Jacqueline Chaput told the Winnipeg Sun that the injury was "above the neck," yet non-life-threatening.
"Other people he was with in the area -- they brought him to the hospital," Chaput said yesterday. "He didn't go by ambulance."
In fact, witnesses said the victim got up and walked with another man away from the scene in the middle of Alfred just west of McKenzie Street after the incident shortly before 8 p.m. -- while the male shooter ran in the opposite direction.
The victim and the man who allegedly shot him, Chaput said, are "very recent acquaintances" who argued on the street before the firearm -- apparently a handgun -- was used.
"We don't have a name for the suspect -- that's how recent," she added, confirming that no arrests have been made.
The suspect whom cops are looking for is aboriginal in appearance, about 5-foot-2 and between 130 and 140 pounds. Police have no estimate of his age.
Don Fraser, a resident of Alfred Avenue, suggested that it was a bizarre incident in which the shooter, victim and a third man were walking together -- apparently friendly toward each other and "laughing and giggling" -- before things became violent.
"I heard one of them cuss at the other one. Then I seen him throw the guy on the ground," Fraser said.
"That's when the guy on the ground turned up like this and shot him. He hit him right here," he added, pointing above his own right eye. "When the guy went down, he was holding the side of his head."
The shooter, Fraser said, ran west before the victim soon got up and went east with the third man.
A source said the victim was taken to Health Sciences Centre in a car by someone he knows.
Staff at the hospital reported the man's injuries to police, who descended on Alfred with the street crime unit and tactical support team in addition to uniformed officers.
"The whole street was surrounded. There must have been 20 cops," said resident Tim Forslund.
"They talked to everybody on the street."
Earlier Friday, Chaput said police are stepping up their presence in the North End this long weekend.
Since a violent weekend in June, police have put more resources, including members of the street crime unit, into the crime-ridden district on weekends.
Since June 1, there have been at least 16 Winnipeg incidents in which shots have been fired at homes or people -- mostly in the North End. Two people have been killed and 12 wounded.
wpgsun.citydesk@sunmedia.ca