A Winnipeg man accused of an unprovoked hammer attack on bus riders has struggled with a cycle of addiction once described by his lawyer as “the same sad story” that beleaguers Manitoba’s court system.
Police have charged Steven Michael Gagnon with several offences related to the Monday morning transit attack. A review of court records showed he was recently released from custody after serving time for threatening a security guard with a hatchet last year.
The latest incident occurred at about 10:15 a.m., when police were sent to the area of the Disraeli Freeway and Sutherland Avenue after two bus riders were attacked, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Tuesday.
Investigators learned a man, in his 20s, had been struck with a hammer by a man he did not know. The attacker then moved to the front of the bus, where he began yelling and tackled another passenger in his 40s.
Police said other passengers — fearing for their safety — intervened, and one used bear spray to try to stop the assault.
The attacker ran off the bus, and police arrested a man on the Disraeli Bridge.
The passengers also got off the bus because bear spray had been deployed. Nobody was hurt, but the bus had to be decontaminated, the WPS said.
Police seized the bear spray but did not charge the person who used it.
Gagnon, 30, was charged with assault with a weapon, assault, uttering threats and possession of a weapon. He was detained in custody.
The new charges add to Gagnon’s lengthy criminal history, which consists of minor thefts, drug possession and breaching court orders. He was previously convicted of robbery in 2014, records show.
Most recently, Gagnon was charged with robbing a Safeway on Henderson Highway on Jan. 29, 2024, and later pleaded guilty to the lesser crime of assault with a weapon.
During a sentencing hearing on May 7 of that year, court heard Gagnon went into the store around 8:50 a.m. and filled his backpack with an assortment of energy drinks, produce and meat. Employees alerted a loss prevention officer who confronted Gagnon as he attempted to leave the store.
“This starts out as a shoplifting incident and then it escalates very quickly. He produces a hatchet, not just a knife or some smaller item, and is actually advancing on the loss prevention officer,” Crown attorney Eric Hachinski told Judge Sandra Chapman.
“Certainly a very scary incident.”
The threat of the weapon was enough to scare off the security guard and Gagnon escaped. Police arrested him down the street roughly six minutes later, Hachinski said.
Gagnon was released on a undertaking, but was later rearrested when he failed to cooperate with the terms of a supervised probation order from a previous offence, court heard.
Defence lawyer John Corona said Gagnon was abusing substances, homeless and “clearly looking for products to sell to feed his addiction” on the morning of the theft.
“There’s no magic to this one, your honour, it’s the same sad story we hear quite often: methamphetamine has been the devil for him.”
The lawyers jointly recommended Gagnon receive a 10-month sentence for the crime, with enhanced credit for time served. Chapman accepted the plea, leaving Gagnon with about eight months left in custody.
It is unclear when Gagnon was released from custody, but, if served in full, the remaining sentence would see him let out around December.
Chapman urged Gagnon to seek addictions treatment while in custody, noting his criminal record included no offences between 2016 and 2023 — a period in which he was apparently sober.
“You’ve done in the past periods of sobriety, so I’m hoping you’ll be able to continue in that regard,” Chapman said.
Gagnon told the judge he would apply for treatment.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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