Andrew Stephen Frang, 25, died from blood loss due to a stab wound on November 9th, 2008.
Frang was Edmonton's twenty-eighth homicide victim of the year.
Case status is open and active.
Frang remembered |
Inglewood - hotbed of crime?
cigarette request a ploy |
first anniversary
Police continue to investigate Edmonton's twenty-eighth homicide of 2008.
A man in his early 20s and his girlfriend were reportedly attacked shortly after midnight on November 9th, 2008.
Police believed the pair were walking east on 118th Avenue toward 123rd Street, past the Liquor Time and Goody Mart stores on the corner, when they encountered two men.
A verbal altercation took place and a knife was drawn. The man was stabbed and he was rushed to the Royal Alexandra Hospital where he later died.
Patrons and workers at a nearby bar were shocked when a woman ran up to them reporting the attack – read more »
"People were out here smoking and his girlfriend – the guy who got stabbed – his girlfriend came running over saying 'Someone please help me, my boyfriend just got stabbed,' " Cheryl Schultz told CTV Edmonton.
"So they everyone ran over there. The whole bar pretty much cleared out and went to help them."
Schultz said a nurse from inside the bar tended to the victim until emergency services responded at about 12:13 a.m.
"She said he had gotten stabbed just up above the left-hand side and she attended to him until the ambulance got here. She said it was like probably a six-inch blade," Schultz said.
As light became day, forensics officers continued to work the scene – see images »
An early morning drizzle further dampened spirits at the scene.
By early afternoon, police had wound up their investigation.
For longtime Edmonton residents, the oval-shaped windows of the building recalled a time when the Towne Cinema occupied the spot.
"It appears that they met on the street. This is a random meeting between these two people," homicide Det. Dave Schening later declared. "I don't know where these suspects came from – at least not yet."
The murder weapon had yet to be found.
Police checked nearby businesses for possible surveillance camera footage. There were no known witnesses other than the stabbed man's friend.
"I believe they might have been in the store but we won't know until they actually view the tapes," Lorraine Levins said.
Both the liquor store and the convenience store had closed shortly before the stabbing.
Investigators later released descriptions of two men wanted in connection with the murder.
One was a native male, 16 to 20 years old, about 5-feet 6-inches with a thin build and dark skin. The second suspect was also a male, a little older and taller.
Investigators said they didn't believe the incident to be gang-related.
Those with information about the matter were asked to contact Edmonton police at 780-423-4567, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), or online at www.tipsubmit.com
Tips can also be text messaged. In Edmonton, text TIP250 + message and send to CRIMES (274637). In Northern Alberta, text TIP205 + message and send to CRIMES (274637).
On November 10th friends and family identified 25-year-old Andrew Stephen Frang as the city's latest victim of homicide. His girlfriend told CTV Edmonton he had been stabbed over a cigarette – read more »
Not wanting to be identified, Frang's girlfriend said she and Andrew were walking along 118th Avenue heading east to grab a bite at the Royal Pizza at 123rd Street.
Along the way two men confronted them, asking for cigarettes. Frang refused. One man then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
"I was so scared and I didn't know what to do. I ran to the corner here and there were people here to help," Frang's girlfriend told Scott Roberts.
"Everybody is still very shocked that this has happened ... everybody's so sad. Of all people – this shouldn't have happened to him," she said.
"I don't even think these kids – the person who did this to him – I don't even think he knows or even cares."
Friend Megan Boyd told Metro Edmonton that Frang and his girlfriend were having a few drinks at the Inglewood Pub. Frang worked as a door installer, she said, and lived in the area.
When the two young males approached Frang and asked for a cigarette, "He told them to beat it, and they stabbed him – all over a smoke," Boyd said.
"He's the type of person that would stick up for himself, but there's no way the situation should have gone like this," Boyd added. "He's not the type of person to go into ghetto Edmonton and start something with random people. He wasn't like that.
"This was nothing he deserved. He never did a thing wrong in his life for it to end like this."
On November 14th, 2008 it was reported police were questioning a person of interest in connection with Frang's murder. No further details were released by police or media.
Frang remembered
Friends of Andrew's, who gathered to lay red carnations on the steps outside the store where he was killed, were furious and bitter over his senseless death. – read more »
"Over what, over what ... a cigarette? Another senseless death – 28 deaths in Edmonton this year, are you kidding?" Tim Simmons said.
"We have a million people. What's wrong? We need to change society now, we need to change everything about this."
"He was beautiful ... he was a beautiful man ... he was a hard worker," said an unidentified friend, his voice quivering with a mixture of anger and anguish.
Friends of Frang described the young man as kind, generous and hard-working.
Contacted by the Edmonton Journal at his home in St. Albert, Douglas Frang shed a bit more light on his son's death.
"One of them punched him and threw him on the ground, and then a fight started, and another one came around and stabbed him.
"He was happy and he was full of life," Douglas said. "It's just devastating to lose him.
"There are so many memories," he said, adding he simply can't believe that his son is gone. "We had good times and we had bad times, but more good than anything."
Douglas said his son worked odd jobs but mainly installed garage doors. He had many friends and a large family.
An autopsy completed on November 12th showed Frang died from a single stab wound.
On November 15th, 2008 dozens of friends and family members gathered at the St. Albert Funeral Home to pay respect to Andrew Frang. The ceremony was brief but emotional – read more »
Inside, Frang's casket was draped with the flag of the West Coast Choppers, a motorcycle customising firm best known from Monster Garage, a television series seen on the Discovery Channel.
"He made guys jealous and he made girls blush," Cory Stafford said at the service. "Heaven's got a new rogue angel."
Frang's family were still too upset to speak to CTV Edmonton's cameras, saying they were still taking Andrew's death day by day. Outside the funeral home, many of Andrew's friends spoke of the popular man.
"He was a standup, straight-edged dude," friend Tim Simmons said. "He never had an enemy in the world. He had no problems with anybody – everybody liked him."
"It was devastating. We're all devastated," Simmons added. "Everybody here's heartbroken. It's a goddamn shame."
"It's just senseless. It's disgusting," said friend Tom Gleason, who worked with Andrew.
"He didn't deserve it at all. He never did a wrong thing to anybody," friend Michael Barrick said.
"Always happy ... nothing would bring him down or nothing ... just an awesome dude," said another.
"It's not fair at all what happened and I really hope things start changing for the better," Frang's girlfriend Kara Nordvall said. Nordvall was with Andrew the night he was stabbed.
"I can't even begin to say how much he's left his footprints in my heart."
Another friend spoke of her grief and frustration.
"The worst thing happened to the best boy. He was a bro of a whole bunch of good people and I couldn't wish it on anybody.
"Those boys need to be found ... I hope somebody has a guilty conscience now due to it. They brought a lot of people to tears.
"I'm in shock," another said.
"I can't believe that our world is getting to this. Parents aren't caring about their kids the way they should be. They aren't watching their kids the way they should be and and these kids have no souls left. They have nothing left in them.
"You can't make sense of it. You just can't," Cory Stafford said. "I hope they get found and I hope they do more than four years ... if [the police] don't find them, someone will."
Stafford's sentiments were echoed on the door near where Frang was stabbed.
In the days after Frang's murder, many added thoughts of condolence, frustration and loss.
Inglewood – hotbed of crime?
Bounded by 111th Avenue to south and 118th Avenue to the north, 121st Street to the east and Groat Road to the west, the Inglewood neighbourhood is a mix of 1960s and 1970s-era walk-up apartments, and proud single family dwellings that date from just either side of World War Two.
In May 2007 a City of Edmonton study (opens as a .pdf) gave Inglewood a "quality of life" rating of 18.79 out of 100, with crime statistics nearly triple the city average – read more »
The most recent statistics released by Edmonton police (September 2008) indicated that while the number of assaults in the area has remained constant, incidents of robbery and break and enters had risen 46.2% and 52.6%, respectively, over 2007 (most recent statistics – May 2009 – can be seen here).
But area residents don't need official crime stats – they know of Inglewood's crime problems first-hand.
"There's a fight every night," Sheri-Lyn Kauther said.
Kauther, the mother of a young child, works as a bartender at The Inglewood Pub, kitty-corner from the scene of Frang's murder.
"I think cops need to be in this area more, patrolling," she said. "It's a big concern. I live a block and a half away."
Kauther's concerns were echoed by Goody Mart and Liquor Time operator John Lal.
"We have to get together and get more police involvment in this area," Lal said. "The drugs and everything ... it's a major problem."
"This area has been getting a little rougher lately," Liquor Time employee Karen Mar said. "I'm surprised that it actually escalated to someone getting murdered, though."
A woman who used to work in Lal's liquor store said Inglewood has a bad reputation for crime, but even she was shocked to hear of Frang's stabbing death.
"For somebody to lose a life? For what? This is scary. What's the world coming to?"
An Inglewood Pub customer said he also lives in the area and has seen frighteningly aggressive panhandlers outside the Goody Mart store.
"I'm not surprised it's right in front of that place," he said.
Dennis Draper seemed to express the concern of many who call Inglewood home as he surveyed the crime scene from across the street.
"I work nights and go out walking around all hours of the night when I am working," Draper said.
"You never know ... it could happen to anybody."
Even those who only occasion the Inglewood district have been eyewitness to the area's increasingly visible crime.
There are sex-trade workers and gang members selling drugs in the same parking lot most nights, Noella Crane said.
"It gets rough. It's dangerous out here," Crane stated, having observed the activity on her weekly visits with family who live in an apartment across the street from the liquor outlet.
Civic politicians reminded Inglewood residents of their role in protecting the central Edmonton community.
"All of us need to be vigilant," Ward Two councilor Kim Krushell told CTV Edmonton.
"If you see something call the cops and report it. We also can be involved by being the eyes and ears for our police force," she said.
Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel was quizzed by CTV Edmonton on the random nature of Frang's murder.
"If it is true, it's disgusting and you've got to wonder what is wrong with people's heads when these things happen ... Edmontonians should feel safe, these acts are by crazy people," Mandel said.
Cigarette request a ploy
About a month after Andrew Frang was stabbed to death, another city man almost met a similar fate.
The cigarette request ploy was one becoming all-too familiar to police – read more »
On December 4th, 2008 a man waiting at a bus shelter at 101 Street and 118 Avenue was approached by two men who also asked for cigarettes.
As the man handed over a few smokes to the pair, a third man entered the shelter. But instead of cigarettes, the third man was more interested in the generous man's belongings.
The first two men then began stabbing the victim, and only his thick clothes prevented him from suffering serious injury.
The story is becoming a familiar one, and experts suggest the request for cigarettes is just a ploy to let down one's guard.
"Unfortunately, the innocence of Edmonton is long ... gone," criminologist Bill Pitt said in an interview with the Edmonton Sun.
"We have to be extremely defensive when someone we don't know approaches us. We have to assume they want to do us bodily harm."
Pitt predicted an economic slowdown would lead to a rise in such attacks.
"The larger issue here is as the economy tanks we're going to see more ... stabbings, homicides, robberies ... their desperation level is going to [rise]," he said.
The view is backed up by statistics kept by Edmonton police.
Over the last six months in the division downtown, Staff Sgt. Gail Denys said officers have noticed an increase in criminals using a request for cigarettes as a way to gain access a victim's personal space.
"It seems like ... an innocent request and when the indivdual complies – or doesn't – that's almost an invitation to commence whatever their intent [is]," she said.
Police described the three male suspects in the bus shelter stabbing as being between 18 and 20 years old, possibly aboriginal, and wearing black jackets.
First anniversary
A year after Andrew Strang was fatally stabbed, his murder remained unsolved and his family remained in pain.
Speaking with the Edmonton Sun, Andrew's father related his anguish – read more »
"We obviously want the person caught," Douglas Frang said. "There is probably not a day that goes by that we don't think about it.
"He was a lovable guy ... he was loved by many."
To date, police have announced no new leads.
additional material
During the course of story coverage, many images are recorded but not all are published. Some are redundant, some are of less than optimal quality and some do not fit editorial context. For the interest of readers, this additional material can be viewed below.
CTV Edmonton's November 9th, 2008 coverage of Frang's murder can be seen here. Their November 10th coverage can be seen here. Their November 15th coverage of Frang's funeral can be seen here.
The Edmonton Police Service web site entry for Andrew Stephen Frang can be seen here.
Additional material in approximate chronological order.
"R.I.P. I will miss you and I will always love you. Things will never be the same without you.
Love, Terri-Lynn."
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