Winnipeg man charged with attempted murder after three-year-old boy stabbed

WINNIPEG — Police have filed an attempted murder charge against a man they allege assaulted the mother of a three-year-old boy before walking to a home and stabbing the sleeping tot multiple times.

Daniel Jensen, 33, of Winnipeg was arrested on Wednesday.

“I think it’s inconceivable to think that somebody would target an innocent child, probably one that was attempting to sleep at that time of night, very defenceless,” Const. Jay Murray said Thursday.

Murray said Jensen and the mother previously were in a relationship, but he is not the child’s father.

Police say Jensen and the boy’s mother got into an argument early Wednesday morning and the woman was assaulted.

Police believe Jensen then walked to a north-end Winnipeg home where the boy was and stabbed him multiple times.

“A lot of people are having a hard time grasping that somebody would be capable of doing something like this,” Murray said. “It’s very hard to believe.”

The child was still in critical condition in hospital on Thursday.

Officers spotted Jensen walking on the street Wednesday afternoon and took him into custody.

At the time the mother was attacked, Jensen was under a court order not to contact her, Murray said.

The suspect has also been charged with failures to comply with recognizance and probation orders.

Bernadette Smith, member of the legislature for Point Douglas, where the attack happened, wiped away tears as she recalled speaking with family members at the hospital Wednesday night.

“This is a call to our community, to our stakeholders as well as our province and our city, something needs to change,” she said.

She pointed to a spate of violent crimes in the last week involving young people.

A 14-year-old girl was killed and an 18-year-old woman was taken to hospital in critical condition after a stabbing at a Halloween party Saturday. A 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman were charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder in that case.

On Sunday, a baby was injured after a man fired a shotgun into a home and then fled.

“This is fuelled by meth and we need more resources for people to get off of this drug,” Smith said.

Police Chief Danny Smyth has also linked the surge in violence to the city’s methamphetamine crisis.

There have been seven homicides in Winnipeg in three weeks, pushing the number of killings to 37 so far this year. The all-time high was in 2011 when 41 people were killed.

The New Democrats have organized a gathering for next week to discuss short- and long-term solutions to help people struggling with addictions and to ending the violence.

“These are people. These are human beings. These are people’s loved ones,” Smith said.

“They are not disposable. People care about them.”

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press