OFF THE WIRE
WINNIPEG - Gang cops are investigating after a 14-year-old boy was shot while sleeping on a couch in his family's townhouse early Monday.
Police downplayed questions about any possible connections between what sources describe as a "war" between the Rock Machine and the Redlined Crew, an affiliate of the Hells Angels.
"There's nothing that we can say to support 100% that this is organized crime or gang related," said Const. Jason Michalyshen.
Margaret Morrissette, who lives next door, said three bullets pierced a wall right next to the bed in which she was sleeping with her boyfriend early Monday.
police officer said that we were lucky to be alive," a shaken Morrisette said.
"He said you're lucky to be alive. He said you should go buy a lottery ticket because luck is on your side, (because) we should've been dead."
The mother of a seven-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy said she no longer feels safe after the townhouse was hit with a spray of bullets in what Morrissette described as a drive-by shooting.
The teen, who was shot in what police will only describe as the lower body, was taken to hospital in stable condition.
The victim, whose name was not released by police, is "very, very fortunate," Michalyshen said.
He would not specify exactly what type of firearm that was used but said it was "a large-calibre that could cause someone serious injury."
Though the organized crime unit is investigating, police said it is unclear whether the shooting is somehow linked to an incident in which a home was shot up and reportedly firebombed last Wednesday. A day earlier, shots were fired into another home.
"We are treating these as separate incidents," said Michalyshen.
Though Morrissette isn't sure why the townhouses might have been targeted - she said the neighbours seem like nice, decent people - her first instinct is to get out of the neighbourhood.
" Either you bulletproof my house or get me out of here. I'm not having this again" she said. "I almost just want to move out of the whole entire city."
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/07/05/boy-shot-in-home-bikers-suspected