Five Firearms Counts and Not One of Them Is for Firing It: Winnipeg’s Major Crimes Unit Charges Karlye Richard, 33, Over a Drive-By Shooting at a Toronto Street House That Nobody Was Living In (Originally Reported September 20, 2026)

WINNIPEG — Published Sunday, September 20, 2026 at 3:09 p.m. Central by the Winnipeg Police Service under file C26-235221, two days after the shooting. This is not a story that broke today. A house on Toronto Street was shot at. A woman was arrested in a white mini van a short distance away with a loaded gun in it. And then the Major Crimes Unit laid five counts against her, every one of which is about having the firearm rather than using it. The word that does not appear anywhere on the charge sheet is discharge.

The Altercation Came First

The release opens somewhere other than the shooting. Police say an altercation between a group of people and a man took place earlier outside a hotel establishment on McPhillips Street. The parties then separated.

Shortly after that, at about 1:00 a.m. on Friday, September 18, 2026, a drive-by shooting was reported in the 600 block of Toronto Street. The force sets those two events down in sequence in a single release, which is as close as it comes to saying they are the same file. It does not state that they are connected, and this briefing does not state it either.

Nobody in the altercation is named. The number of people in the group is not given. The man is not described. The hotel is not identified. Nothing is said about what the argument was over, whether anyone was hurt in it, or whether anyone involved in it has been charged with anything.

The House Was Empty

The detail that changes the shape of this file is what the bullets hit. The targeted residence was vacant and no one was injured.

Police use the word targeted, which means they are not describing stray rounds. Somebody picked an address in the 600 block of Toronto Street and fired at it. The release does not say how many shots were fired, how many struck the house, whether any projectiles were recovered, whether neighbouring properties were hit, or whether the residence was vacant permanently or only that night. Whoever chose that house either did not know it was empty or did not care.

Five Counts, and What Each One Is Actually About

Read the charge sheet in order and it describes a gun, not a shooting.

Store firearm or restricted weapon contrary to regulations is a storage offence — how the gun was kept. Unauthorized possession of a prohibited device or ammunition covers the ammunition or a device such as an over-capacity magazine. Unauthorized possession of a firearm in a motor vehicle is about the gun being in the van. Possession of a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm is the one that carries the real weight here: it establishes on the face of the charge that the seized firearm was loaded and was prohibited or restricted rather than an ordinary long gun. Possession of a weapon is a general count and may attach to the bear spray.

There is no count of discharging a firearm, no count of discharging with intent, no count of careless use, no count of mischief to property, and no attempted-murder count. Police reported a drive-by shooting and then charged a person with possessing the gun. That gap is either a matter of what the evidence can carry today, or a matter of what an ongoing investigation has not yet resolved — the release does not say which, and this site is not going to supply a reason police did not give.

The Firearm Nobody Will Describe

The only thing the public record establishes about the gun is what the charges imply: it was loaded, and it was prohibited or restricted. Beyond that there is nothing. No make. No calibre. No type — handgun, rifle or sawed-off. No serial number, and no statement of whether it had one. There is no indication of whether it was stolen, traced, or matched to the rounds fired on Toronto Street, and no mention of ballistic examination at all.

The bear spray is in the same condition. It is seized and then never mentioned again: no quantity, no statement of whether it had been used, and no clarity on whether it is the subject of the possession-of-a-weapon count.

One Person Charged, and a Van With Room for More

A drive-by, as the term is ordinarily used, involves a vehicle in motion and a person firing from it. The release names one accused. It does not say whether Karlye Richard was driving. It does not say whether anyone else was in the white mini van, whether anyone else was arrested, whether anyone else was released, or whether the force is looking for other occupants. “A woman was taken into custody” is the whole of it.

Nor does the release say how the van was found. It says it was spotted nearby — not how soon after the shots, not by whom, not how far from the house, not whether it was moving or parked, and not whether the stop involved a pursuit. The seizure is described as coming from the vehicle, which means officers looked inside it; the release does not say on what authority.

What Is Still Not Reported

No civic address, only the 600 block. No shot count and no statement of damage to the house. No explanation of why the residence was vacant or who owns it. No identification of the McPhillips Street hotel and no charges arising from the altercation. No names, ages or descriptions for anyone in the group or for the man. No statement that the altercation and the shooting are connected. No description of the firearm or of the bear spray. No court date, no docket, no bail outcome beyond the word detained. No statement of whether Karlye Richard was already bound by any court order or firearms prohibition. No officer is named or quoted. No count of occupants in the van. No statement of whether the accused is alleged to have fired anything.

The Winnipeg Police Service names no gang, criminal organization or outlaw motorcycle club in this file, and none is named here. No profile page on this site is linked. This file qualifies for coverage on the face of the offence — a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm, seized out of a vehicle after a reported drive-by — and not on any stated connection to an organization. A group of people arguing with a man outside a hotel and a house shot at an hour later is not, on this record, evidence of anything more than that. If police attach an organization to it, this site will report it then.