Friends grieve teen fatally stabbed in southeast Calgary

Editor’s note: This story originally stated the incident happened on 42nd Street. The story has been corrected. Global News regrets the error.

Homicide detectives from the Calgary Police Service are investigating a fatal stabbing in the city’s southeast.

At about 7 p.m. Thursday, officers were called to the 1300 block of 41st Street Southeast “for reports of an altercation involving a weapon,” police said in a news release Thursday night.

A teen was found suffering from what police said appeared to be stab wounds.

The youth was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. He was later pronounced dead, according to police.

Alyssa Meloche, 16, said the victim was her friend. She said he lived with her family for a while when he needed a place to stay.

“(He) was such a good person. He was so sweet. He did not deserve this,” Meloche said.

“He was so amazing. He was always by my side when I was at my lowest. I was by his side when he was at his lowest. We had each other’s backs. We were so close and the fact that this happened and he’s only 16.

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“I’m scared. The fact that it happened to him — he’s 16. I’m 16. That could’ve happened to me or any other little kid in this complex,” she said.

Meloche said she and her boyfriend Arlo Quinn, 18, arrived at the crime scene minutes after the stabbing.

“I don’t know how to process this,” she said. “We were here 15 minutes after he was killed.

“Finals are coming up and I have to grieve during finals,” Meloche said, wiping her eyes.

Quinn described the victim as his best friend.

“Me at 18 years old, I’m not in the best position right now, and I was watching him make a lot of choices that I made as a kid at his age, and I was there trying to redirect his course.

“Trying to get out of a certain lifestyle in the city, especially here, is like the monkeys in the bucket (game). You try and climb out and they keep pulling you back in,” he said.

“I love the kid… and he didn’t deserve this and I want justice served,” Quinn said.

He explained the victim’s family took him in when he needed a place to stay.

“They gave me a place to live when I had nothing. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here.”

Quinn said this isn’t the first friend he’s lost.

“It makes me wonder: I could be next. It makes me want to put my head down and change everything, change my life.

“If you can’t change the people around you, then your only option is to change the people around you. If you don’t know what that means, then you’re not ready to grow,” Quinn said.

An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

Police have not released the age of the teen.

Several police officers were in the area on Thursday evening. A section of the roadway was blocked off by police tape as officers investigated.

Calgary police said later Friday they had one person in custody.

With files from Caley Gibson and Emily Mertz, Global News