Reward offered for tips on Winnipeg shootings

Winnipeg police are trying to entice the public to help them solvethree weekend shootings that left two people dead and one injuredby offering a large financial reward for tips.

Every tip that leads to an arrest will be rewarded with a $2,000payment, police announced Wednesday.

The police arealso set to releasea Crime Stoppers video that features each of the three locations where shots were fired.

Two men were killed and a teenage girl was injured during the violence, which all happened between 8:40 and 9:15 p.m. in Winnipeg's North End neighbourhood on Saturday.

Police are still classifying the incidents as random and do not know if they are linked.Nor do they know if they are searching for one or more suspects.

Samantha Stevenson, 13, was struck by a bullet on Saturday when she was walking with friends in the 200 block of Stella Walk in the city's North End.

A man dressed in black approached a group oflocal kids and asked if they wanted to buy marijuana, a relative of one of the children told CBC News on Sunday.

When they refused, he opened fire, hitting Samantha in the abdomen. The terrified children then banged on the door of a nearby home to get help while the shooter took a bicycle from another home and rode off, witnesses told CBC News.

Two other shootings followed soon after one outside a home in the 400 block of Dufferin Avenue,another outside a home in the 400 block of Boyd Avenue.

Twomenwere killed in those incidents.

Tommy Beardy, 35, was killed on Dufferin and Ian Layton MacDonald, 52, died in the Boyd Ave. shooting, relatives and friends of themen said.

Samantha has had surgery to repair the damage the bullet caused. She is recovering in hospital and isin good spirits, her dad told CBC News on Tuesday.

If the shootings are related, a tipster stands to earn as much as $6,000 the biggest ever single payout for a tip, police said.

Crime Stoppers canbe reached at 204-786-8477 or toll free at 1-800-222-8477.