Edmonton police investigate death of young man

Homicide detectives are investigating the suspicious death of a young man who was found early Sunday in front of an apartment building north of downtown.

A friend identified the victim as Bruce, a man in his early 20s originally from Buffalo Lake.

“My friend got stabbed. He got jumped by three guys, he got stabbed once, instant death right there,” said 22-year-old Travis Lewis, who came back to the scene Sunday morning to pay his respects, waving a hand and pointing up to the sky.

The victim was found on the street in front of the Windermere apartment building at 10625 107th Ave. in Central McDougall. He was taken to hospital, where he later died.

A trickle of blood remained in the roadway gutter later Sunday, slowly washed away by rain.

A detective at the scene said guns were not suspected in the incident. Police don’t know how many individuals were involved, and are going door-to-door to find witnesses.

An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. If declared a homicide, it would be the city’s 26th of 2011.

Lewis said he was at a downtown bar Saturday night when he got a call telling him police were at the scene, near where his son was staying. He took a cab to the area, where he was detained by police.

Officers told Lewis the man had died and asked if they knew each other.

Lewis said the dead man was “a cool guy,” who lived nearby with his girlfriend.

The man wasn’t a resident of the building where he died, said John Cherry, a resident of the 12-suite Windermere condominium.

Cherry heard two male voices yelling shortly after midnight, which he said isn’t unusual in the neighbourhood. But this time was different, since one of the voices sounded almost like crying. Cherry said he didn’t investigate until police arrived about seven minutes later.

“I heard the cops come and the sirens stop right here, so I did look out the window. And he was lying right where you see the blood puddle. To me it looked like he was already deceased.”

Cherry saw an ambulance take the motionless man away. A few minutes later, police woke up residents to ask if anyone had heard or seen anything. Soon afterwards, forensics teams set up a tent around the scene, marking several pools of blood on the street with spray-painted numbers.

Cherry said the area has its problems, but the Windermere condo board strictly monitors its tenants and is a great place to live.

A community police station right across the street is open during the day, and patrol officers regularly communicate with tenants. But there’s no way they can stop everything that happens outside, Cherry said.