Two men were taken to hospital early Saturday morning after a stabbing and a fire in west Edmonton.
Police were initially called to a home in the area of 64 Avenue and 184 Street shortly after 4 a.m., after reports that a man had been stabbed.
Edmonton police said it was reported that several people in the home were drinking, and at some point one of the men – who lives next door – was asked to leave.
When the owner of the home went outside to talk to the man who was asked to leave, he was stabbed in the upper body, police said in a media release. The stabbing victim, a 30-year-old man, was taken to hospital where he remains in stable condition.
The male suspect, who police said is 23 years old, could then be seen going into a neighbouring townhouse unit, which was then “locked down” by police, Sgt. Graham Blackburn said.
“While we were waiting for additional police units to respond, we noticed smoke billowing from the building,” Blackburn explained.
Fire crews were called to the scene and when they entered the home, a man was found unresponsive.
Iqra Javed has lived in a neighbouring unit for 10 years and said she was woken up early Saturday morning because of the fire.
“We didn’t know what was going on but the fire was really bad. After some time, after the fire was gone, there was a man inside and they took out that man,” she said.
The man was taken to hospital with what Blackburn called very significant, serious burns. He remained in hospital late Saturday morning in critical, life-threatening condition.
Javed said the stabbing and fire incident are unusual, adding the neighbourhood is relatively quiet.
David Bigchild has lived in a neighbouring unit for eight years and said he knows both of the men involved in the two incidents.
“All close neighbours, I visit them quite frequently. Both are really nice,” he said.
Bigchild witnessed emergency responders pulling the man out of the unit.
“It was actually sad to see him all burnt up. [He had] melted clothes, charred up really bad. [You] couldn’t really make it out as the same person that lived there,” he said.
Police remained on scene late Saturday morning as they continued their investigation. The homicide section has also been notified, police said.
Bigchild said he is still in shock that both incidents happened metres away from his unit.
The identities of the men involved have not been released.
No charges have been laid.
Comments