Arrest made in April homicide

Winnipeg police have arrested a 50-year old man wanted on a warrant for a fatal shooting in the North End last month.

Adam Joseph Morrissette, 50, was arrested for second-degree murder in connection with the April 26 slaying of 28-year-old Bill Brian Duck of Winnipeg.

Duck, who was originally from God’s Lake First Nation, was shot on the 600 block of Flora Avenue. Police found him at a nearby home, but he died in hospital. Three days later, police issued a public appeal for witnesses.

Late Monday, officers who were patrolling near McGregor Street and Magnus Avenue followed a pickup truck after the driver made an evasive turn in front of them, the Winnipeg Police Service said Wednesday.

The driver eventually left the vehicle and began running away. He was arrested and identified as a suspect in the slaying, the WPS said.

It’s alleged he was driving a stolen vehicle and had a small amount of drugs. He has been charged with two counts of possessing a scheduled substance and one charge of possessing property obtained by crime worth over $5,000.

Police spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said detectives had obtained an arrest warrant several days prior to Morrissette’s arrest, and officers were told to be on the lookout for him.

Police said Duck and Morrisette did not know each other. Homicide detectives are still piecing together what led to the shooting, but McKinnon said she did not want the public to think the killing was “completely random.”

“Detectives are still working on what the motive was… but we don’t want to insinuate this was a drive-by shooting, or walk-up shooting,” she said.

“It just doesn’t appear that they had a previously existing relationship of any kind.”

The incident is Winnipeg’s 13th slaying of 2024, though police include the 2023 deaths of two infants in their internal 2024 homicide statistics because charges were laid this year.

Morrissette’s record, which dates to 2003, includes convictions for multiple firearms offences and robbery with a firearm in 2019.

For multiple firearms offences in 2015, he was given three years less time served, as well as a lifetime ban on possessing weapons.

Morrissette has also been convicted of possessing property obtained by crime under $5,000, drug possession, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, theft and harassing phone calls, court records show.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca