There was a large police presence Monday morning outside a townhome complex in northeast Edmonton’s Beverly area, where homicide detectives were investigating a suspicious death.
Just before 2 a.m., emergency crews were called to the Parkview Estates complex, at 116 Avenue and 32 Street in the Rundle Heights neighbourhood.
Police and paramedics found a man “in medical duress” lying on the ground in the green space near the complex.
First responders tried to resuscitate him but he died a short time later, police said in a news release.
A man who lives in a townhouse in the complex said he heard someone yelling to call 911.
“Somebody got shot,” resident Gordon Perreault alleged, adding he was in his front room when it happened. “I heard a pop. At about quarter to two, two o’clock.”
Perreault has lived in the area for five years and said he has seen a lot of criminal activity. “A lot of stabbings, a lot of fighting. A lot of people sleeping on the ground.”
“I don’t like this neighbourhood. I want to move.”
Watch below: A man’s death in northeast Edmonton is now under investigation by homicide detectives. The man was found in medical duress on the ground outside a townhouse complex and later died. Quinn Ohler has more from the scene.
David Nielson also heard the gunshots and the sound of a vehicle driving away. He doesn’t know how long it took police to arrive, because he didn’t dare go outside. “I did not go out.
“When you hear a gunshot in this neighbourhood, you do not leave your apartment. I didn’t even go to the balcony to look.”
“I’ve seen knife fights. I saw a young man get stabbed over here within the first week of me moving in. It’s a bad, bad area,” Nielson said.
Resident Reg Slaunwhite said he and his wife now want to move. “We’re actually looking for another place,” Slaunwhite said while sitting in his car, explaining there was a homicide nearby last summer.
In June 2017, a 17-year-old was found dead in the parking lot of an apartment complex near 29 Street and 116A Avenue.
“Yeah, right directly out of our window, you could see the tape and everything from last year, when the young fellow was killed,” Slaunwhite said.
Slaunwhite now says enough is enough. “Yes. Yup, that’s enough. That’s enough to make us move. Absolutely.”
READ MORE: Teen victim identified, 3 charged in recent Edmonton homicide
A black tent could be seen set up in front of a row of townhomes, and police tape was blocking off a large area. Two people were also seen in handcuffs.
Waking up to a body outside was the last thing resident Karl Burcombe expected.
“It’s supposed to be kind of a rough area, you know? But I didn’t think it was that bad,” he said.
Burcombe said he went outside and saw police tape around his fence, and police cars around the property. “So I knew something was going on,” he said.
“I’ve lived in this neighbourhood for five or six years and there’s been a few things here and there, but nothing like this, you know? Right outside my front door.”
Another resident was not surprised at all to be woken up by police knocking at his door.
“In this neighbourhood? Normal, normal — very normal. There was a gentleman right down here run over from a guy stealing his truck,” Derek Borg said.
In 2014, 33-year-old father Adam Groves was run over and killed by his own truck as he tried to stop it from being stolen from outside his home in the same townhouse complex.
READ MORE: Edmonton hit-and-run victim a ‘truly inspiring’ family man
“There was another gentleman right in this building over here was beat to death,” Borg added.
“To see this many police cars in the neighbourhood – every day!”
An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday morning.
- Gas station clerk stabbed several times during violent attack at Ultramar in Montreal
- Canada’s most wanted list: Toronto suspect in fatal shooting at No. 1
- Man acquitted in Tina Fontaine murder found dead, says her aunt
- Canadians should expect politicians to support right to bail, Virani’s office says
Comments