The Winnipeg Police (WPS) headquarters was its own crime scene Wednesday morning after protesters angry over the arrest of Tre Delaronde vandalized the building on Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday morning WPS forensics units were investigating a rash of vandalism at the downtown station where windows were splashed with graffiti such as “just dig pig” and “lazy pigs.”
Protesters gathered at the station Tuesday evening after Tre Delaronde, one of the main organizers of an encampment at the Brady Road Landfill was arrested near The Forks Tuesday, where a second camp is currently set up.
An online video posted early Wednesday morning showed that Delaronde was released, and in a second video posted around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Delaronde claimed he was at one point this week involved in a verbal confrontation with a security guard who was stationed at the Brady Road Landfill, and said that is what led to his arrest.
He claimed in the video he is now being charged with offences including uttering threats and mischief under $5,000, and that he is now banned from the Brady Road Landfill site, but WPS had not confirmed any of that information as of Wednesday afternoon.
The initial protest was set up at the Brady Road Landfill in December when advocates called for the Prairie Green Landfill to be searched for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran. Calls were also made for the Brady Landfill to be searched for missing Indigenous women.
Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of four women, including Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, whose remains are believed to be at the privately-run Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg.
He has also been charged in the death of Rebecca Contois, whose remains were found last year at Brady Road, and an unidentified woman that Indigenous leaders are calling Buffalo Woman, whose remains have not been found.
After the Brady Road blockade came down, some organizers moved to a second encampment on the east side of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) although the encampment still remains at Brady Road.
WPS didn’t respond to requests for information on the vandalism as well as the arrest of Delaronde.
