Teens involved in robbery at Unicity Walmart

A Winnipeg police inspector is at a loss for words after reviewing video footage of an armed robbery at the Unicity Walmart Tuesday night.

Police say four teens, including an armed 13-year-old, put people’s lives at risk while robbing the store of backpacks of merchandise.

“With shoplifting and retail theft, it is just becoming so overwhelming for so many of us and the level of violence is just continuing to increase,” said Insp. Max Waddell, Winnipeg police service.

“I think about the retailers, I think about the people that are in that store, I think about your kids who are getting their first job in retail,” said Insp. Jen Mckinnon, Winnipeg Police Service.

The teens allegedly stole backpacks full of merchandise, but one was stopped by the store’s security guard. Thats when police say the armed 13-year-old fired a shot that narrowly missed the security guard’s head. They found the gun to be a c02 propelled airgun, that they say looked just like a handgun.

“When we got to these calls, whether it’s a replica firearm, whether it’s a co2 firearm, whether it’s a real firearm, we’re treating it as a real firearm and we could have been in a position where we had to use lethal force to deal with it,” said Waddell. “Not only with the suspect but all the bystanders that were in that premise and it was just a very very unneeded dangerous situation.”

Waddell says the majority of these incidents are organized crime, not people stealing out of need. Two of the four teens were charged for failing to complete previous sentence orders.

Waddell says harsher sentences are needed.

“The consequences that offenders are getting for their actions is not sufficient enough to stop them from re-offending,” said Waddell.

This all comes as Canadian businesses find themselves in the throes of a retail theft rise. According to the Retail Council of Canada, businesses lost nearly double the value of goods in 2024 compared to 2018 and about 45 per cent of incidents included violence.

“There is a national blitz that’s happening across law enforcement agencies,” said Mckinnon.  “This isn’t just unique to Winnipeg. This is a national problem that we’re all facing and we’re all trying to find a solution to.”

Winnipeg police are encouraging businesses to report retail theft to better inform their strategies.