Assault with a weapon -- a stolen vehicle.

Should we ban cars? Should we hold the owner of the car responsible because he did not lock his car up properly and allowed it to be stolen?

HELL NO!

Than why guns? Cars are a far more deadly "assault weapon" than ANY firearm?

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Assault with a weapon -- a stolen vehicle.
Date: Mar 13, 2008 11:54 AM
PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun
DATE: 2008.03.13
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: 3
BYLINE: ROSS ROMANIUK, SUN MEDIA
WORD COUNT: 365

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Run-down suspects held Officer fired at car as driver tried to hit him

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Police have arrested two teenage boys in a recent attempted run-down of a city cop
at Polo Park Shopping Centre, and have charged one of them with assault with a weapon
-- a stolen vehicle.

A 16-year-old faces that and several other charges after Winnipeg cops arrested
him Tuesday following the Feb. 25 incident, in which an officer fired his service
firearm at the car -- a two-door Pontiac Grand Am GT -- in self-defence in the mall's
west parking lot near The Bay.

The incident came as several cops had converged on the parking lot to try to apprehend
a couple of suspects trying to steal a vehicle. That's when the Grand Am, allegedly
with the 16-year-old boy behind the wheel, was driven at one officer.

'SIGNIFICANT ARREST'

The cop jumped out of the way and was not injured.

"It's a significant arrest -- knowing that we've been able to apprehend
these youths, they're off the street and it's not going to happen again,"
Const. Blair Good said yesterday.

"We take these types of things very seriously. They are going to be followed
up. People will be held accountable for their actions."

But the head of a city police union pointed out nine such "lethal force encounters"
have occurred among his members -- some in which they've been on the intended
receiving end of gunshots -- in less than a year. And Loren Schinkel questioned
the way in which justice officials deal with them.

"I can't overstate the seriousness of these types of incidents," said
Schinkel, president of the Winnipeg Police Association. "We need the appropriate
deterrents and accountability to be meted out by the court system. We'll see
if that does occur here."

The alleged driver -- who as a youth can't be named publicly -- is also charged
with assaulting a peace officer, fleeing police and possessing property obtained
by crime, as well as other offences.

The alleged passenger, 17, faces theft-related charges.

SEVERAL ATTEMPTS

The Polo Park incident was one of several such alleged attempts by suspects to hit
officers with vehicles in Winnipeg in recent months.

A 34-year-old man, who was fired at by police last Saturday, was later arrested
after trying to run down an officer with a car in the North End.

On Feb. 5, two males allegedly used a stolen pickup truck to ram an unmarked police
vehicle with two officers inside.

Last November, officers shot at drivers of two stolen vehicles which had allegedly
rammed their cars during separate incidents within an eight-hour span.

"At the end of the day, I'm just praying that luck doesn't run out
for one of our front-line members -- or for a member of the general public,"
Schinkel said.





The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !