Ottawa Police are investigating the first murder of the year.
A 24-year-old man died after being stabbed early this morning in the city's east end. Police were called to the 11-hundred block of Joseph Cyr Street for a medical call around 5:30 this morning. The call to a house party on Joseph Cyr was about an injured man. But the injuries turned out to be life-threatening, then fatal when the young man died hours later in hospital.
Police identified the man as Brian Boucher.
Police rushed to a home on the largely commercial area off St. Laurent Boulevard early this morning after a medical call to 911. The scope of that call quickly changed.
“We came on scene not knowing what was going on and it was later confirmed that a stabbing had taken place,” says Constable Chuck Benoit with the Ottawa Police.
24 year Boucher was in critical condition and died in hospital.
A group of young people told police they lived in a different apartment in the house at 1155 Joseph Cyr and were allowed under the yellow police tape and into their home, yelling at cameras as they went in.
Their neighbor, Zain Akl, who lives in one of only two houses left on the block was clearly upset about the early morning murder.
“It is shocking,” Akl said, “in the backyard of your house, when you have two kids, trying to build a family and something happen like that, it keeps you wondering what's going on.”
Marshall Grant knew one of the residents in the house but wasn’t sure whether it was the victim, “It's sad, people kill each other. Why do they do that? I don't know.”
That's what police investigators are now trying to piece together. While they don't yet have a suspect, there are witnesses.
“There were witnesses to the incident,” Cst. Benoit said, “Investigators are speaking to people who were at the location at the time of the incident.”
This is Ottawa’s first murder of the year in a neighbourhood that has seen tragedy before. It was just in November of last year that another young man was stabbed to death very close to here.
21 year old Solomon Odekunle died after a knife attack at Piper's Bar and Grill in early November. A 27-year-old man has been charged.
Across the street from the murder scene, Uncle Loui's restaurant has been a mainstay here for 30 years. Its owner says times are changing.
“I don't like that but nothing you can do,” Simon Skaff said from inside his restaurant, “that's life.”
Police are asking anyone with information to call the Ottawa Major Crime Unit at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
