Nairn Avenue standoff, fire followed crime spree: police

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This article was published 23/05/2019 (1792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Thursday evening standoff and fire at a Nairn Avenue home capped off a days-long crime spree by a 29-year-old Winnipeg man, according to city police.

Gordon William Kovich is in custody and has been charged with a slew of crimes, including breaking and entering, arson, uttering threats, failure to comply with a probation order, theft, and possession of stolen property. He was also charged with multiple offences related to outstanding arrest warrants.

“We certainly believe that drugs may have played a role in this incident,” Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jay Murray said during a Friday news conference at police headquarters. “Specifically, we’re looking into whether methamphetamine played a role or not.”

Police believe Kovich carjacked a vehicle from a 28-year-old man early in the morning of May 14 near Cavalier Drive and Portage Avenue, then stole licence plates from a different vehicle on the 400 block of Talbot Avenue sometime between May 21-23.

A Thursday afternoon call about a “firearm-related incident” at a Chalmers-area home may have also involved Kovich, police said, although he has not been charged for that incident. Police believe he was also responsible for the theft of about $330 worth of goods from a store on the 900 block of Nairn Avenue Thursday afternoon.

Later Thursday, officers reported the stolen vehicle (with the stolen licence plates) near the Nairn overpass. The suspect was driving in the wrong lane when the vehicle hit another vehicle on the overpass.

A foot chase followed, during which police said the suspect “grabbed at his waistband” and threatened to shoot the pursuing officers. A gun has not yet been found, police said Friday.

The chase ended when the suspect ran into the home on Nairn Avenue. One adult left the house soon after, and three others remained inside — but police didn’t describe them as hostages, and Kovich has not been charged with forcible confinement.

“We believe that the suspect had been at this house prior,” said Murray, adding some of the people in the home may have known him, “but I wouldn’t even call him an acquaintance.”

Winnipeg’s first homicide of 2019 — the New Year’s Day shooting death of Adam Travis Martin, 31 — took place at the same house, Murray said. Two men were later arrested and charged in the slaying.

The police tactical support team safely removed the three remaining adults from the residence. For the next six hours 40 minutes, as police surrounded the home, the suspect refused to leave. At some point, police used their armoured vehicle to break open the front door of the house, but officers didn’t enter at that time.

Police said the suspect started a fire inside the home at about 8:10 p.m. After he yelled for help, police broke a window fortified with metal bars and rescued the suspect from the burning home.

The house was deemed “a total loss,” police said, with damages estimated at $100,000. Investigators believe a cat may have died in the fire.

“Officers approached this residence that was on fire, to pull somebody out of a residence that was threatening their colleagues just hours earlier,” said Murray.

“And after the fire, I went looking for who those officers were, and no one wanted to take recognition for it… It’s just the nature of police work — it’s another day on the job.”

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sol_israel