Regina’s fourth homicide victim is being remembered as a friendly and outgoing partner, father and security guard.
Larry Godfrey, 45, worked as the Northgate Mall security guard for over 15 years and was known by many Regina residents as “Larry the mall cop”.
A Facebook memorial post by Northgate Mall has been shared more than 2,000 times. A total of 463 comments are under the post, many people sharing happy stories about their encounters with Godfrey. Some current and former mall employees mentioned that Godfrey would walk them to their cars after their shifts and make sure they were safe.
“He’d be phoning me like ‘oh honey I’m not going to be home by 10:30 I got to wait at the mall for somebody,” his longtime partner Michelle Deschambault said.
“He would always take the time to make sure the employees were safe,” she added.
Regina Police reported on March 8 that Godfrey was the victim of the city’s fourth homicide. Police had been dispatched to a home in the 100 block of St. John Street for reports of an injured male on March 7 at 4:18 a.m. Godfrey was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Regina resident Anthony Trey Seon, 25, has been charged with second degree murder in connection with Godfrey’s death.
Deschambault is in shock about what happened to her partner of over 20 years.
“Just having him go like that, it’s serious shock. He would never hurt anybody. He wouldn’t be negative or say a mean word to nobody,” she said.
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Deschambault met Godfrey when they were both 16 at Regina’s Cornwall Centre, where she said they used to go hang out and drink coffee.
They lost contact for 10 years before getting together in 2000. Deschambault had a son during that time and said Godfrey raised him as his own. Godfrey and Deschambault also have a son together.
Godfrey also leaves behind children from other relationships.
The family went travelling and took many summer camping trips over the years. Deschambault said they travelled to Saskatoon, Banff and Calgary, among other places. She told Global Regina she has a lot of great memories from those trips.
When they were young, Godfrey upgraded his education at SIAST. He worked another security job before ending up at Northgate Mall.
“To tell you the truth, I think he was just looking for a job, starting out raising our family, he wanted a job,” Deschambault said.
She said she was touched by the comments on the mall’s social media post, especially the ones about Godfrey walking mall staff to their cars at night.
“I found that so ‘Larry’, he was always concerned and he took his job seriously,” Deschambault said.
She added that Godfrey would also ask staff members who were alone during shifts if they needed bathroom breaks.
“He would take the time and watch the store while they were gone,” Deschambault said. “Not many security guards would do that.”
She said Godfrey was always saying hi to everyone and would strike up conversations with anyone. She said he was always smiling and laughing.
“You’d never see him have a bad day,” Deschambault said. “He didn’t hold onto anything to make him upset, he always let it go he was like ‘oh well why let something so small and minimal ruin a whole day.’”
Godfrey proposed to Deschambault in 2014 when the two were working at Northgate Mall together.
Godfrey got Deschambault’s family to show up at the mall and brought her to the front of the Gifts Etc, where she was working at the time, to drop on his knee and pop the question.
Deschambault said Larry was visiting her and their sons the day that he died. He was busy and had stuff to do, but told Deschambault he’d be home that night.
“I came home to wait for him. He never came,” she said.
Godfrey’s family will be having a funeral and traditional wake for him on Tuesday.
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