A teenage boy is facing charges after several employees at a Food Fare were assaulted by a suspect wielding brass knuckles on Tuesday evening.
The incident happened at about 6:40 p.m. at the grocery store at 905 Portage Ave.
Three male employees, ages 19, 22 and 46, were transported to hospital and treated for various upper-body injuries. The suspect fled on foot before officers arrived, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Wednesday morning.
The WPS said investigators have learned that staff members removed the suspect from the store earlier in the day after some sort of incident.
The suspect later returned, produced brass knuckles and assaulted the three victims, the WPS said.
A suspect was arrested at the rear of the 1000 block of Selkirk Avenue. The WPS said officers saw the suspect discard brass knuckles in a nearby yard and found the weapon.
The Winnipeg teen is facing three counts of assault with a weapon and one count of possession of a prohibited or restricted weapon knowing its possession is unauthorized.
He was released from custody on an undertaking.
On Tuesday night, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs announced it would hold a news conference regarding the incident Wednesday morning. The event was cancelled Wednesday.
The Food Fare store has been the site of a few incidents between staff members and suspected shoplifters. WPS spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said Tuesday’s incident does not appear to be related to any incidents media have previously reported on.
“This would stand on its own as an unrelated incident,” he said.
The WPS declined to reveal the circumstances that led to the suspect being escorted out of the store earlier in the day. Police deferred comment to Food Fare on that matter.
“This male returned as a direct response to what had happened,” Chancy said. “The victims were the same people that were involved in the process of escorting him out during the earlier incident.”
He said the victims suffered a range of injuries when they were struck with brass knuckles. One may have suffered a concussion.
Store owners suspended a supervisor last month after an altercation with an Indigenous woman who was accused of stealing.
Security video viewed by a Free Press reporter showed the employee pulling on the woman’s bag. The woman appears to swing her fist at the employee before the staff member appears to punch her in the face.
In response, the AMC, which provides food orders and vouchers to clients under a federal government program, announced it had severed its relationship with the grocer but was willing to reconcile if an apology was forthcoming.
The AMC said in the Tuesday news advisory that it’s “working closely with the owners of Food Fare, who have expressed their sincere apologies for a previous incident where a woman was injured by security at their store. In response, the owners have agreed to implement cultural sensitivity training for their staff and to draft a comprehensive policy to address shoplifting.”
The advisory stated the speakers at the now-cancelled news conference would include Grand Chief Cathy Merrick, Food Fare owner Munther Zeid, as well as Tarik Zeid and Wajih Zeid.
A Winnipeg woman said she witnessed another incident involving an employee May 5.
Gloria Enns was stopped at a red light at Portage Avenue and Arlington Street at about 3 p.m. when she saw two men fighting. One was wearing a red apron she recognized as a Food Fare uniform.
Enns said she called the store and an employee confirmed a worker confronted a male after seeing him steal meat.
Food Fare manager Tarik Zeid told the Free Press no one was physically hurt and the employee was “defending the store and the merchandise.”
Security footage from the store, which was viewed by the Free Press, appears to show a man take two packages of steaks and slip them into a reusable bag. The employee confronted him at the entrance of the store and tugged on the bag in his hand.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca