WINNIPEG - Police in Winnipeg yesterday warned residents to lock themselves in their homes as they searched for a man accused of going on a shooting spree on a bike.
Two men are dead and a teenaged girl is in critical condition after apparently random shootings within 35 minutes ofeach other. The Canada Broadcasting Corporation reported that the first shooting happened after a man dressed in black approached a group of youths and asked if they wanted to buy cannabis.
Witnesses told CBC News that when they refused, he opened fire, hitting a 13-year-old girl in the abdomen.
While the teenagers banged on the door of a nearby home for help, the shooter took a bicycle from another home and rode off.
A boy was also shot at, but the bullet went through the sleeve of his sweater, witnesses said.
The two men were shot within a few blocks of the first shooting and police have said all three appeared to be random attacks.
Investigators cordoned off a large area of the neighbourhood.
Police spokesman Jason Michalyshen said the victims don't appear to have been targeted, but information was scarce.
"At this stage of the investigation, [the shootings] appear to be random," he said.
He cautioned that investigators had yet to confirm that all three shootings were linked.
