Winnipeg police arrest two men in turf war firebombing
Posted July 14, 2011 3:41 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Winnipeg police have announced charges in city’s latest fireboming saying a crackdown on warring biker gangs in Manitoba’s capital is underway.
“Our members are working diligently, working around the clock to combat this issue,” Const. Jason Michalyshen told reporters. “Rest assured, we’re out there and we’re actively involved.”
Police have laid arson charges against Taylor Brett Morrison, 23, and Shaine Gerald Stodgell, 33, in a Tuesday morning incident that saw incendiary devices tossed through the front window of a tattoo parlour in the city’s Osborne Village district.
Stodgell has also been charged with setting fire to another business on July 10.
The incidents are among more than a dozen firebombings and shootings this summer that police say are part of a battle between two gangs for the city’s drug trade. Police will not name the gangs they suspect, but the conflict is said to involve affiliates of the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine.
In some cases, buildings have been riddled with bullets or had makeshift Molotov cocktails thrown into them. There have been no injuries in most events, but a 14-year-old boy was injured in an exchange of gunfire July 4.
Police believe the escalating war stems from a void created since 2009, when dozens of people were arrested under an organized-crime sweep called Project Divide.
With two people now charged in the latest crime, Michalyshen promised more charges will soon follow.
“Certainly there are arrests pending, whether that be in that incident (or) in many others that we have been reporting on.”
