Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 12, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba B2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I MANITOBA FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2024 NO CHARGES AFTER POLICE HIT MAN WITH BEANBAG ROUNDS NO charges will be laid after a man was hit with two beanbag rounds by Winnipeg police, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba announced Thursday. Winnipeg Police Service officers were sent to the Shell gas station on the 700 block of Portage Avenue on July 11, 2023, after reports of a man brandishing a knife, later found to be a piece of glass. Police fired two beanbag rounds at the man before they were able to take him into custody. The man was assessed for minor injuries at the scene. MAN KILLED IN CRASH NEAR BERENS RIVER A man is dead after the transport truck he was driving hit a grader near Berens River on Wednesday. RCMP were sent to the scene of the two- vehicle collision about 20 kilometres south of Berens River at about 2:30 p.m. Officers determined the truck, driven by a 63-year-old man from the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews, was travelling north when it hit the right-hand side of the blade and rear portion of a grader also travelling north, RCMP said in a news release Thursday. The truck rolled on its side into the ditch. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the grader, a 40-year-old man, was not injured. FIREFIGHTER HURT BATTLING BLAZE A firefighter suffered minor injuries while fighting a blaze at a commercial building in the St. Boniface Industrial Park early Thursday. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said crews rushed to the 700 block of Camiel Sys Street at about 1:04 a.m. and saw smoke billowing from the building. Firefighters went inside to launch an offen- sive attack and declared the fire under control by 2:13 a.m. The building’s occupants got out safely be- fore crews arrived. A firefighter with a minor injury was assessed by paramedics but didn’t need treatment in hospital. An electrical malfunction is the suspected cause of the fire. —staff BRIEFS Boxes of decades-old photos turn up in store basement Pictures worth a thousand memories L ISA McPherson could almost hear her late grandfather, Wil- fred Favel, strumming his gui- tar, as she looked at a photo of him taken in the 1960s. “I’m sure he’s playing Elvis in that picture,” she said with a laugh. McPherson pulled the photograph from one of two envelopes, found among 30 unclaimed others, dating back to 1966-67, in the basement of Empire Drugs, at 801 Selkirk Ave. The North End pharmacy has been in business since 1927. McPherson’s grandparents, includ- ing Wilfred’s wife Betty-Anne Favel, are frozen in time at a wedding cere- mony and reception of a close friend, among the roughly 25 black-and- white and colour photos she claimed Thursday. She last saw her grandparents in 2003, before they died. “I have (had) one picture of my grandparents and now I have two packages of photos,” McPherson said. “It’s like visiting with them all over again.” Seeing Wilfred’s handwriting on the envelopes was “jarring” for Mc- Pherson. “It almost makes me want to cry,” she said. The couple was among the faces in some of the photos posted to a Face- book group on Tuesday by Empire Drugs supervisor Dwayne Hynes. Hynes came upon the unclaimed photos in May while rummaging around in the basement, which was filled with Halloween costumes from the ’80s and ’90s, and other wares such as colouring books, toys and greeting cards, stored by previous owner Jim Harlowe. “When I saw (the photos), I knew that this was going to be something important that I have to take care of,” Hynes said. “I felt a responsibility to these people to have them returned to the relatives, because they would’ve meant something in the first place.” “Pictures were so important to people because that’s all they had to sort of document history and past ex- periences,” he said. Hynes took to the “Growing up in Winnipeg 60s, 70s & 80s History & Culture” Facebook group to spread the word about his find. “The response has been over- whelming and very positive. People are very grateful,” Hynes said. The store used to be a drop-off point for undeveloped film, which would be sent to a film service for processing, before being returned for pickup. Within the envelopes are images of a car crash, weddings, family trips, Christmas parties and graduations. Hynes can only guess why the photos weren’t picked up decades ago, but names, dates and addresses on the yellowed envelopes provide some clues about their origins. Five of the 30 envelopes had been collected as of Thursday morning, and Hynes said the excitement ex- pressed by surviving relatives is un- deniable. He said he hopes all the photos can be collected after nearly 60 years, but for those left behind, Hynes is en- sureing they’re not forgotten. “My plan is to maybe just put them in photo albums and leave them here at the store for people to look through, and have sort of a history book in the store, because this is where it all started.” jordan.snobelen@freepress.mb.ca JORDAN SNOBELEN PHOTOS BY NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS Empire Drugs supervisor Dwayne Hynes discovered more than two dozen envelopes of unclaimed photographs dating back more than 50 years in the store’s basement. These photos were claimed by the sister of the pictured groom. She didn’t know these photos existed, or even who the photographer was. The photographs date back to 1966-67 and were never collected from the store. Vocational wing at Waverley West complex step closer A civic committee has agreed to in- crease the budget for the construction of a vocational wing at a Waverley West recreation complex after the provincial government agreed to foot the bill. The property and development com- mittee, at a special meeting held Thurs- day afternoon, agreed to raise the voca- tional wing construction budget of the South Winnipeg Recreation Campus by $6.7 million, to a total of just under $15 million. “We’re building this vocational wing on behalf of the province for the Pem- bina Trails School Division,” commit- tee chairwoman Coun. Sherri Rollins said. “We won’t have to pay for this. The provincial government gave approval for the hike and we held a special meet- ing just for this.” Rollins said the matter next goes to council’s executive policy committee and finally city council for approval. A provincial spokesman said they are withholding comment about the project now, but will comment during a cere- mony at the site later this month. The vocational wing is part of what the city is calling “a new regional multi- use, multi-generational” recreation campus in the Waverley West area be- side Pembina Trails Collegiate. Phase 1 of the construction, starting this year, will include gymnasiums, multipurpose rooms, an indoor walk- ing track and fitness area, an outdoor spray pad, and a child-care centre. It’s expected to cost $94 million after ori- ginally being estimated at $71 million. The city also agreed to build an addi- tion to house vocational programs onto the neighbouring high school — if paid for by the province. Future phases of the recreation cam- pus could include a swimming pool, library, outdoor leisure space, hockey arena and athletic fields. A fire and paramedic station is also slated to be built in the area. The facility’s price tag had Coun. Jeff Browaty, chairman of the civic finance committee, expressing concern earli- er this year that Winnipeggers will be disappointed when they see what $94 million will get them. “It seems like a pretty lame facility for that much money,” Browaty said in April. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca KEVIN ROLLASON Hynes posted about the discovery to a local Facebook group and has begun returning the photos to family members. Man charged with forcible confinement, sexual assault A woman managed to escape her captor after being assaulted and robbed inside a Westwood home Tuesday. The victim met a man on the 3300 block of Portage Avenue where he struck up a conversation with her and they got to know each other over the course of several hours, the Winnipeg Police Service said Thursday. “Unbeknownst to her, he was laying a trap for her,” said WPS spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon. The man, identified as 39-year-old registered sex offender Kyle Thomas Quill, lured her to a home owned by people he knew and broke inside while no one was there, police said. The ac- cused then allegedly barricaded her inside the residence and physically and sexually assaulted her to the point of unconsciousness. “He had built up a little bit of trust with her and then completely took ad- vantage of that connection,” McKinnon said, adding the accused was intoxicat- ed at the time of the offence. After the man passed out, the victim fled the home and called police, who later found Quill and charged him with several offences, including forcible confinement, uttering threats, robbery, breaking and entering, failing to com- ply with conditions of a release order, sexual assault and sexual assault by choking, suffocating or strangling. The woman was treated by emer- gency services for injuries, McKinnon said. According to court records, Quill has multiple outstanding charges including assault, mischief, failing to attend court and failing to comply with conditions of a release order. In 2009, Quill was convicted of as- sault with a weapon and theft under $5,000, and in 2015 he received a jail sentence for breach of probation, fail- ing to register under the Sex Offender Information Registration Act, assault, mischief and breach of bail. His failure to register with the sex offenders list stemmed from a Brandon sexual assault conviction in 2010. nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca NICOLE BUFFIE To see the photos, visit wfp.to/oldphotos ;