This article was published 21/1/2018 (973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Nancy Flett, 23 long years have been spent haunted by the fact her young son was murdered simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time while three teens were cruising the streets looking for blood.

"I still have a very hard time dealing with the loss of my son," Flett said. "I’m still going through therapy and counselling because it’s very hard. I have a lot of flashbacks just with the shock of how everything happened.

Spence was shot by a gang member in a case of mistaken identity.

"A parent never gets over the loss of a child."

Flett’s grief has always been compounded by the fact the boy who murdered her son did so even though he had never crossed paths with his victim before he pointed a sawed-off shotgun and shot him in the back early one summer morning in Winnipeg’s North End in 1995.

"No one has the right to decide they’re going to take a life," Flett said. "No one has the right to play God."

It was July 23, 1995, teenagers all over Winnipeg were in the middle of their summer vacation, and Flett’s 13-year-old son Joseph Spence, a boy known to his friends and family as ‘Beeper’ was spending his summer days hanging out with friends and family, and working at his first part-time job.

Beeper was with a group of friends playing video games at a friend’s North End home in the wee hours of July 23 at what Flett said had been planned as a sleepover. She expected Beeper back the next morning.

Flett says the parents at the home had to leave suddenly because of an emergency, and the grandmother of the boy hosting the sleepover asked the boys to leave because she didn’t know the boys had been invited to spend the night.

With that, the boys were sent onto the dark streets of The North End at around 2:15 a.m.

It was at this point Beeper and his buddies decided to go to Beeper’s aunt’s place, which was only about a block away, Flett said.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS From left: Vance, April, Tracy and Nancy Flett hold a photo of Nancy’s son, Joseph ‘Beeper’ Spence, who was murdered in by gang members in July 1995

When Beeper and his friends got to the intersection of Flora Avenue and Robinson Street a van suddenly pulled up to them.

A voice from inside the van asked the boys to come closer.

Seconds later a teenage boy aimed a sawed-off shotgun out the window and shot at the group, hitting Beeper in the back.

Beeper lay on the ground while his friends screamed; many in the neighbourhood came outside to see what was going on.

According to reports, an off-duty police officer was in the area at the time and rushed over to help him, the officer witnessed Beeper gasp for one last breath and then pass away in front of her.

"My son will never ever, ever get another chance at anything in this world ever again. These people committed murder, they killed a child" ‐ Nancy Flett

It was a morning that changed everything about the life of Beeper’s mom, a morning she still remembers vividly to this day.

Flett said it was her sister-in-law who phoned and told her Beeper had been shot. Flett said she ran to the hospital.

"And that’s when I was in the hospital freaking out yelling, ‘Is it Beeper? Is it Beeper? Where was he shot? Is he talking? Is he responding?

"And no one could answer anything."

Another sight from that morning haunts Flett to this day.

"I just remember being in the hallway and seeing a blood trail going into the room where they were working on Beeper," she said.

Five-year-old Beeper Spence during a visit with Santa Claus.

Beeper would not survive, and now, with the city waking to the news of the murder of a 13-year-old boy, those who loved Beeper were left to wonder why he was shot that morning.

Flett would soon find out three teenagers were in the van, and those three teens were on a mission of rage, seeking revenge wherever they could find it.

Teenage boys Conrad Johnson and Fabian Torres and teenage girl Kami Pozniak would be arrested for the murder of Beeper.

They were all associated with Winnipeg’s Deuces street gang, and on the day of Beeper’s murder they were enraged one of their own had recently been beaten by members of the rival Inadian Posse street gang.

Flett said she would learn at the trial the three knew who they wanted to shoot, and had gone to that person’s North End home, but when no one answered the door they turned their attention to taking out whoever they could find.

"Because no one answered the door they just said, ‘We’re just going to go do anybody,’" Flett said. "They were looking for blood, and they were going to kill anyone on this side of the bridge."

In the days and weeks after Beeper’s murder, Flett was left dealing with the loss of her son, while also dealing with her and her family now receiving death threats.

"We were getting a bunch of death threats," Flett said. "We were getting them from people affiliated with that gang. At the time it was the Overlords that oversaw Deuce. We were getting flack from both of those gangs.

"We had a rock thrown through our window and it had a message on it that said, ‘The girls are going to die the same way your son did.’"

The threats became so serious Flett said she, along with her then 11- and 12-year-old daughters, and her husband packed up and moved in with a relative.

What would follow would be more than two decades of Flett dealing with a Youth Criminal Justice System she believes puts too much focus on young criminals’ rights, and not enough on victim’s rights.

Beeper Spence with his sisters, Tracy (left) and April at a family wedding in 1992.

"It felt like those murderers had more rights than my son, and as we did as the victims," Flett said.

"My son will never ever, ever get another chance at anything in this world ever again. These people committed murder, they killed a child."

Johnson, Pozniak and Torres were 17, 18 and 19 respectively on April 24, 1997, when they sat in a Winnipeg courtroom after making plea deals in return for reduced sentences.

Flett said all three teens smiled and laughed that day, something that still enrages her to this day.

"I know they never had any remorse just by the way they were holding themselves in court. They were in the court waving at their friends and family and smiling," Flett said. "It was just sickening, and it made me sick because it was my baby they took from me and then I had to sit there and watch them treat it like a joke."

Johnson, the teen who shot Beeper pled guilty to second-degree murder, while Pozniak and Torres would plead guilty to manslaughter. As the teens were charged as adults, their names could be made public.

Crown Attorney Sid Lerner told the court how three teens had celebrated what they had done in the seconds and minutes after Johnson shot Beeper, and that the teens had been out looking for revenge that morning for something that had nothing to do with Beeper.

Verdicts for all three would come down six weeks after the trial started. Johnson, the teen who pulled the trigger, receive a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for six-and-a-half years.

Pozniak, the girl who sat in the van that morning with the two boys, would receive a two-year sentence for manslaughter.

It appeared Torres would get no time in prison. He was given a one-year conditional sentence to be served in the community, a ruling that enraged Flett while she stood in the courtroom and addressed the judge presiding over the case.

"I was telling the judge ‘You’re going to let this guy go and he’s going to go out there and he’s going to hurt another family.

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Beeper Spence

"I said ‘you can’t let him go.’"

An appeal saw Torres’ conditional sentence raised to a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence. After serving less than half of his sentence, Torres was back on the streets.

It wouldn’t be long before Torres would terrorize another family. In August 1998, Torres and three others committed a violent home invasion where adults and children were present.

The four looted the home at gunpoint and stole the family’s van; they were caught by police the same day.

Torres was arrested and his parole revoked; he was sentenced to 11 additional years in prison.

In 2005, Torres was out on parole again and had more run-ins with the law. It is believed he is now out of prison.

Tami Pozniak’s life after serving her prison sentence was plagued with drug addiction, prostitution, run-ins with the law and ultimately death.

She was arrested on numerous occasions after her release on charges relating to prostitution, drugs and failing to comply with court orders.

Pozniak died in February 2011 at the age of 32, leaving behind two children.

Johnson, who received a mandatory life sentence, has spent more than two decades in and out of custody, on full parole and day parole, but always ending up back in prison for various reasons, including not complying with court orders.

Flett said Johnson is currently incarcerated, but she believes he will be up for parole again soon.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES “The gang offers employment and fast cash through drug trafficking, the gang offers a sense of belonging, the gang offers protection,” says retired Winnipeg police officer James Jewell.

She said she has always kept track of where the three of the killers were because she always feared what they might do to her family or to others if they were out on the streets.

"I always get the news that they’re out on parole or out on leave," Flett said. "It’s something that just keeps happening to us over and over and over.

"You’re re-victimized and forced to relive what happened every time you find out one of them got out and is back out there."

The killing is also something that has haunted Beeper’s sisters, Tracy and April, since they first got the news their brother was gone when they were 11 and 12 years old.

In a message written jointly by Tracy and April, the two women expressed the rage and anger they still feel towards the person who killed their big brother.

"Conrad took our big brother from us and took so much away from Beeper," they wrote. "Beeper is the one who has lost out on everything, life, family and love. Because of Conrad’s stupid choice to go out and kill an innocent person we don’t have our big brother. We love and miss our brother Beeper."

Flett has remained in Winnipeg’s North End since she lost her son almost 23-years ago. She says she has watched as gangs have continued to bring violence, drugs and fear to her neighbourhood.

"It hasn’t gotten any better," Flett said. "I think it’s worse because of all the activity happening in the city, and just all the things you hear and see.

"Bad things are happening, people are stabbing youth, beating youth, and it’s all just sickening."

Flett said she has always believed if more resources aren’t put into Winnipeg’s North End, kids will continue to gravitate towards gangs and the gang lifestyle.

"Ultimately, all the things the gangs offer are false promises, as most often gang members end up in the morgue or doing a life sentence." ‐ James Jewell, retired police officer

"The problems are still out there on the streets," she said. "They need to get more resources out into our community and more programs and things for our youth to do. It’s a beautiful area and there are a lot of beautiful things around here and lots of good people, but with the deaths and the gangs I just wish it would all stop."

Retired Winnipeg Police officer James G. Jewell, who worked as a police officer for 25 years, including eight years in homicide, said it was "definitely" around the time Beeper was killed that law enforcement officers in Winnipeg started to realize there was a gang problem in the city.

Jewell said it was first in the early 1990s that young and often Indigenous inner-city youth started being recruited by biker gangs such as the Hells Angels or Los Bravos, and often sent out to do those gang’s dirty work by acting as "affiliate gangs."

That led to the creation of a number of Aboriginal street gangs including Deuces and Indian Posse, Jewell said.

He said biker gangs "saw the benefits of using the Indigenous street gangs to traffic their drugs to insulate themselves from law enforcement."

There are many issues that can push young inner-city kids towards the gang lifestyle, Jewell said, including issues such as poverty and a lack of feeling like they belong or have any prospects of a bright future.

"The gang offers employment and fast cash through drug trafficking, the gang offers a sense of belonging, the gang offers protection," Jewell said. "Ultimately, all the things the gangs offer are false promises, as most often gang members end up in the morgue or doing a life sentence."

Jewell agrees with Flett that the gang issue in Winnipeg has not improved in the more than two decades since Beeper was shot.

"Not much has changed and the situation is probably worse," Jewell said. "In 2017 we had a number of gang, drug and organized crime related killings.

"Experience tells us gun and drug crime is most often associated with criminal street gangs and organized crime."

Nearly 23-years after she lost her son, Flett said she, along with her daughters and Beeper’s step-dad, Vance, often talk about what life would be like if Beeper were alive. They tell stories to Beeper’s nieces and nephews about the uncle they never knew.

"We just remember him laughing and joking around all the time. We miss his smile. We miss his laugh and we just miss all the good times," Flett said.

"We would go on bike rides together and go on picnics and go to the beach. There are lots of things we all used to do together."

Flett said her one wish is that she could spend time with her son one last time, although she knows that wish can never come true.

"If I had one wish, it would be to hold my son Beeper one last time and tell him how much I love him."

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Twitter:@davebbbaxter