Pubdate: Mon, 02 Apr 2007 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2007 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 GANGS BLAMED IN SHOOTING, STABBING A 23-year-old man was shot within blocks of where a 21-year-old man was stabbed Saturday night, in two separate incidents that police said were likely gang-related. The shooting happened about half an hour before the stabbing, but police said Sunday they did not think the incidents were related. Police say they were called to the scene of the shooting around 11 p.m. after getting a report of shots fired near Central Park. They found the victim in the area of the park at Carlton Street and Cumberland Avenue. The victim is a 23-year-old man with two shotgun wounds to his upper body. He was listed in stable condition yesterday. Winnipeg police are looking for a black man in his teens or early 20s who is a suspect in the shooting. Sunday afternoon residents and passersby in Central Park said the area's gang and drug problem is getting worse and most people are afraid to walk through the centre of the small park. "It's not safe here," said John M, an immigrant from Sudan who moved out of the area two years ago. "There's a lot of gangs going on here." Marie, another woman who lives in an apartment block on the edge of Central Park, clutched her grocery bags as she walked home Sunday afternoon. Marie said people in her building have warned her about walking through Central Park and going out at night. "I always hear shouting, screaming," she said. A 21-year-old man is in stable condition in hospital with multiple stab wounds following a fight in the inner city that was mere blocks away from the shooting. The man stumbled into a gas station on the corner of Sherbrook Street and Notre Dame Avenue just before 11:30 p.m. Saturday asking for help. An attendant there called an ambulance. He may have fled for help following a fight on Cumberland Avenue and Sherbrook that police are investigating as gang-related violence. Police say the stabbing victim is refusing to talk to them about what happened. The gas station attendant who was working Saturday night said he was neither shocked nor frightened when the bloody man walked in. It wasn't the first time he's had to call an ambulance to help a victim of violence and the attendant said he got first aid training to learn how to stop wounds from bleeding. "I wouldn't say it's common but it happens enough," he said. "It's just neighbourhood drama." - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine