The victims of a double homicide in downtown Winnipeg earlier this week shot and killed each other — and were members of the same street gang, police say.
Anthony Brian Cromastey, 30, and Rodney Albert Kirton, 25, died after opening fire on each other inside Johnny G’s, a popular late-night restaurant and pub on Main Street, around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“The investigation has determined the deceased males died as a result of simultaneous gunshots to each other,” said Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Rob Carver, adding that both handguns have been recovered.
“So the two individuals were basically in a gunfight in a public restaurant and shot each other fatally on the spot.”
Asked how unusual it is to have a simultaneous double homicide, Carver called it “incredibly rare.”
“In Canada, I’m not aware of it ever having happened,” he said.
“We did a bit of research and it looks like it’s happened in the [United] States once or twice, with all the shootings there are.”
Carver said he’s surprised there weren’t more casualties because there were a lot of bullets flying.
About a dozen people were in the restaurant at the time, with many running out and flagging down a police cruiser that happened to be passing nearby.
A female employee was hurt by a ricochet bullet and sent to hospital where she was treated for a non-life-threatening injury and released.
Cromastey and Kirton were members of the same street gang but Carver wouldn’t say its name.
“I never announce the gang. I’m not going to give any gang the publicity,” he said.
Immediately after the shooting, another man at the scene assaulted Kirton, police said. An 18-year-old is charged in that attack.
“Kirton was still alive when the assault took place,” Carver said, noting he and Cromastey were rushed to hospital in serious condition where they died shortly afterward.
Their deaths are the city’s fourth and fifth homicides of the year.
Carver said police have used security camera footage and witness statements to piece together the incident.
from Update Trend News http://bit.ly/2Gh3E6m
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