deadmonton 2008 - andrew livingstone o'brien
Andrew Livingstone O'Brien, 42, was shot to death August 5th, 2008.
O'Brien was Edmonton's seventeenth homicide victim of the year.
Case status is open and active.
O'Brien's rap sheet | his life and high times | problems persist on the Avenue of Nations
Yellow crime scene tape and a tent marked off an area north of 107th Avenue on 108th Street early August 5th, 2008 as homicide detectives worked the city's latest murder.
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At around 4:18 a.m. a man was found lying in a driveway at the Admiral House apartment block at 10741 108 Street, just north of the Avenue of Nations, suffering from what appeared to be at least one gunshot wound to the chest.
Paramedics were called and the man was rushed to the nearby Royal Alexandra Hospital. The black man, in his late 20s or early 30s and described as a regular in the area, was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
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Police initially said little and indications were that the shooting was not a random act of violence. A witness described shots coming from the passenger of a white vehicle, possibly a Pontiac Sunfire, carrying two men that left the scene.
Possible gang and drug links or connections to other murders had not yet been determined.
“It's still early in the investigation and I'm sure detectives aren't ruling any possibilities out but it doesn't appear to be (related) at this point in time,” said a police spokesman.
Forensic staff moved in and set up a tent to protect the scene from a light morning rainshower.
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"My God there's been more incidents here since I've been here than you can shake a stick at," one neighbour told media.
Area residents reported hearing yelling just after 4:00 a.m.
"We're still trying to identify the man, he didn't have a lot of ID on him. We do know it's a male, and we know he's suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body. Until the (medical examiner) does his autopsy, we won't know how many gun shot wounds there were," a police spokesman said.
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"He was basically found on the ground here," the spokesman added, referring a spot under the protective canopy littered with a cap, a cigarette butt, and a beer can. Blood-soaked towels were left by Good Samaritans and ambulance personnel.
CTV Edmonton's David Ewasuk snagged reluctant eyewitness Chad Mandziuk for a statement.
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"You could see the guy laying on the grass over there and he was just kinda twitching and groaning and whatever ...
"So I kinda said to my neighbour 'Call 911' – she was already on the phone calling 911.
"There's not a whole lot I can tell you. I can tell you what I heard: this guy had a Jamaican accent, he was screaming this guy's Maleek's name.
"Within fifteen minutes I heard the gunshot. I looked out the window. You could see a vehicle burning around the corner there.
"When I came out they were trying to put him on a stretcher and he was screaming, like he was screaming bloody murder."
Like many others interviewed, Chad felt efforts needed to be taken to make the neighbourhood safer before vigilantism takes hold.
"There needs to be something seriously happening because people are going to start taking shit into their own hands and they're going to start protecting themselves."
A witness told CBC Edmonton they saw a "skinny man" approach a car that was stopped on the street, and then get shot in the chest.
Another man, who lived in the apartment building across the street, said he awoke to someone yelling out a name. Later he heard another voice swearing repeatedly.
"I didn't pay too much attention to it," he said, noting such shouting was not uncommon in the area.
About 15 minutes later a loud shot rang off. The man went to his window and saw a "skinny black man" lying in the driveway, moaning.
When police arrived the injured man was screaming. "The cops were telling him, 'Calm down, Calm down," the resident said.
Media found no shortage of neighbours who woke to the sound of gunfire and saw the aftermath signalling the city's latest murder.
"I just woke to a 'pop' – just a 'pop' like a firecracker ... a big loud noise," Georgina Abbott said. The former Bonavista, Newfoundland resident came out of her apartment and saw the victim laying on the ground.
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"He was over there, lying ... he was bleeding out," she added.
“It was shocking because you hear about it but you never see it. I had never heard a gunshot in my life until this morning. It’s sad that somebody had to die.”
Global Edmonton captured the shadow of a man named Jack as he told of what he heard and saw.
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"And this guy figured he was going to run away so he started coming by my window and he was screaming the F-word ... probaby screamed it three or four times.
"I didn't hear absolutely nothing else after that for probably ten minutes and then it was just 'Bang' – just a loud bang. Looked out the window and could see the guy laying there and the car was driving away."
Jack told the Edmonton Journal said he's getting fed up with the area and had recently told his father someone would likely die there.
“I said 'guaranteed there's going to be a killing around here in the next little while.' I could just see it coming.”
A woman walking her dog in the wake of the murder also walked into microphone range. Reporters recorded her ambivalence to the area's latest incident of violence while respecting her fear of being recognised.
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"Why am I not suprised by this murder? Because I've lived in this neighbourhood for four years," she said.
The woman who didn't wanted to be seen also didn't make it a habit of making eye-contact with strangers.
"You can spot them. They're either drunks or they're crackheads or they're prostitutes ... you can spot them pretty quick."
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On August 8th autopsy results were released that confirmed 42-year-old Andrew Livingstone O'Brien had died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
O'Brien was known to police – and the Edmonton Journal (who recorded Constables Lindsay Gross and Dave Chow talking to him on July 24th, 2008).
"Police have had dealings with the victim before, and it's possible this is a drug deal gone bad," a police spokesman said. "There is no indication that this is gang-related."
No suspects have been identified.
Those with information about O'Brien's death 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).
That Andrew O'Brien was known to police was almost an understatement.
In September 1997 the then 32-year-old was convicted of seven counts, including procuring, living on the avails of prostitution of a person under 18, sexual assault and uttering threats against a prostitute's family.
O'Brien was sentenced to six years in prison with no parole for three years.
In August 1998 O'Brien was sentenced for uttering threats in court and received an additional six months in prison.
O'Brien had made threats against Crown prosecutor Clifton Purvis during his 1997 trial.
A court constable testified that during the trial, O'Brien pointed his hand like a gun in Purvis' direction and gestured "as if he went bang and shot somebody ...
"After he made the gesture ... he smiled at me," said the constable.
Another constable on duty that day said that after O'Brien made the shooting gesture, he mouthed the words, "I'll kill ya."
Shackled and handcuffed on the witness stand, O'Brien denied making the gesture or mouthing the words, and suggested the court constables and reporters in the gallery were conspiring against him in an effort to sell newspapers.
"If I had something to say, I'd say it," he told the court. "If I was going to threaten Mr. Purvis, I'd threaten Mr. Purvis," he said.
Under questioning by the Crown, O'Brien admitted he swore at people and called Purvis a goof during his previous trial.
The man didn't appear to appreciate the gravity of the new charge. When a provincial court asked O'Brien if he had any comment before sentence was passed, he issued a sarcastic "Thank you" laced with profanities.
"You're all a bunch of fucking goofs," he shouted as he was escorted out of the courtroom.
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Clifton Purvis later became the prosecutor heading the Project KARE task force, and oversaw the charges laid against, and the trial of, Thomas George Svekla.
While the Crown prosecutor's career blossomed, O'Brien stuck with what he knew best.
Since his release from jail on the prostitution matter, he faced charges for carrying a concealed weapon, possession of uncontrolled substances, and aiding and abetting a crime. Multiple charges for failing to appear for court dates also punctuated his resume.
His most recent charge was laid in May 2008 for failing to comply with conditions.
Toward the end of his life, to most O'Brien was simply another face on the street, familiar to beat cops, social workers and those running the inner city's homeless shelters and outreach centres.
Austine Werbicki told the Edmonton Journal that O'Brien was often seen panhandling in front of the Husky gas station where she worked.
"He would be there just about every day," she said. "Every time I'd see him, he'd be like, 'How's it going, what's up, and can I bum a dollar so I can get a Slurpee?'
"He was a nice guy," Werbicki said, noting O'Brien was a heavy crack cocaine user.
Two weeks before he was shot, Constables Lindsay Gross and Dave Chow stopped O'Brien on 107th Avenue and 101st Street. In tow was a Journal photographer who recorded the encounter.
In the friendly exchange, Gross and Chow kidded the man over his new pants, asking him who he had robbed, and reminded him that he was banned from 107th Avenue.
"I'm banned from the world," O'Brien replied.
The officers related how the homeless man often broke into apartments, using lobbies and laundry rooms as places to sleep. O'Brien had recently attacked a landlord with a knife, a weapon he seemed to be always found with.
Gross said he hadn't seen O'Brien high "for a while" but regularly saw him drunk. Chow added that the homeless man "can just snap at any time."
In the days after his murder, a slightly more tragic picture emerged of the city's seventeenth homicide victim – tragic in the sense that Andrew O'Brien was already a victim of a drug that kept him on the streets.
Andrew's family near Sherwood Park shared their loss in interviews with the Edmonton Journal and Global Edmonton.
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As a child in 1978, Andrew Livingstone O'Brien came to Canada from the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica. His cousin Kary McLeod, who considered Andrew his brother, had come a year earlier.
While they grew up together in north Edmonton, as adults their lives took them in different directions.
While McLeod settled down, O'Brien's "carefree spirit" led him to risk and misadventure. Soon he was attracted to a dangerous crowd and the drugs they used. Andrew was addicted to crack for the past three to four years, his cousin said.
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"He always wanted to push things to the limit," Kary said.
"When his parents moved to Toronto, he did not want to go. He stayed with us for a while. But the rules at our house ... he did not like them, so he decided to go out on his own."
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Andrew was not homeless. McLeod provided his cousin with his own bedroom where he would, often stay up to two weeks at a time.
"Andrew would come to our house a mess," McLeod said. After a few days, with a bath and some meals behind him, he'd return to the streets – the spell of crack calling him back.
"We spent a long time talking about his lifestyle," McLeod said.
"Sometimes even he would cry about it. He would not refer to it as crack; he said cocaine. I said: 'No, cocaine is for people with money. You are a crack addict.' "
O'Brien laughed at the label, his cousin remembered.
"It seems like it was a calling," McLeod added. "He was just magnetized to that lifestyle. And I would ask him: 'Why would you want to leave a home where you have everything to go back on the street and do nothing?' "
His cousin would respond: "I don't know, man. I can't help it."
"He'd spend a week or two with me -- clean up somewhat, but ... I refer to it as 'the demon.' The demon was calling him," Kary told Global Edmonton.
"My grandmother always said when there's life there's hope. And everytime he'll come and stay with you you'd hope it would be the last time.
McLeod said he knew Andrew wanted help.
"But he didn't know how to get it. And I think the crack was more powerful than his desire to get the help.
"I hated the fact that I would spend a week with him and then he would leave," McLeod said. "107th Avenue and 108th Street is infested with drug addicts whom I no longer pass judgment on.
"We did not approve of his lifestyle and he tried to keep it from us."
Kary spoke of the sort of treatment Andrew received.
"They'd let him out without any kind of forced rehabilitation or forced help. The system just allowed it to happen."
But when he staying was at his cousin's home, Andrew was a different person.
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"When he was not high, he was the most pleasant person to be with. I loved being with him," McLeod remembered fondly.
"Andrew was always my grandma's favourite ...
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"My daughter just loved him. She'd get up in the morning and run to his room jump all over him.
"One of the things I remember is when he tried to change my daughter. He treated her like a porcelain doll. He was so gentle with her."
Kary shared his advice for others dealing with an addicted loved one.
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"Keep trying ... don't give up on them. It's a disease that they cannot help. It's a cancer that people want to fix but they just don't how to fix.
"We did everything we could but ... I guess it wasn't good enough.
"I think it's the most difficult thing I've had to deal with ... by far," Kary said.
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A service for O'Brien was held August 13th, 2008. Relatives were expected from as far away as Toronto, New York, Atlanta and Jamaica.
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About 40 friends and relatives gathered at the Memories Funeral Home on St. Albert Trail, remembering a man who was described as "carefree."
Cousin Kary McLeod spoke at the service and recalled how he tried to provide safe place for Andrew to stay.
"I wanted to help him, but I knew I couldn’t," Kary said, adding his cousin lived a fast and dirty lifestyle.
Family said O'Brien was proud of his Jamaican heritage. They described him as a very intelligent man with an "attitude for gratitude."
“After hearing about Andrew’s death, everything I did always reminded me of him,” an emotional Kary said.
O’Brien body was to be cremated with his remains sent to Jamaica to be buried alongside his grandmother.
A tribute to Andrew Livingstone O'Brien appeared in the Letters section of the Edmonton Journal and it came from an unlikely source: Staff Sgt. Jamie Ewatski of the Edmonton Police Service.
City's 17th homicide victim a likable character
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Re: "Murder victim a 107th Ave. regular; No one charged yet in shooting death of homeless drug user, police say," The Journal, Aug. 8
Twenty years ago I had the opportunity to meet Andrew Livingstone O'Brien during the course of my duties as one of the beat officers at 105th Strett and Jasper Avenue.
As described by people close to him over the past couple of days, Andy was there for one reason only -- to use and to sell drugs -- gateway drugs being marijuana and hashish.
During the next two years, Andy and I developed a professional and respectful relationship. Like others, he used and sold, and I and other police officers charged, arrested and convicted these opportunists.
Andy was a likable character, always willing to talk, joke and play the game of cat and mouse with the local beat cops, but opportunities to get his life together were always discussed but never capitalized on.
We were tasked with cleaning up the Beaverhills Park area. We did try our best to present the honest way of life to the numbers of youth that frequented that area. The community and the police were successful in changing the landscape and the demographics of the area, but at times I feel that we failed at changing the overall mindset of people like Andy who eventually became slaves to their addictions. Like those of others from that era, his lifestyle led to his ultimate demise far too early in life.
My condolences to his family.
Staff Sgt. Jamie Ewatski,
Edmonton Police Service
In the wake of the fatal shooting of Andrew Livingstone O'Brien, media attention focussed on Edmonton's 107th Avenue's reputation of violence.
With real estate development in the city's urban core tearing down many downtown haunts, inner city residents have been forced into moving to surrounding areas.
The Avenue of Nations area has long been a community that has welcomed newcomers ... but now the community is home for a different type of transient population, bringing with it the baggage of petty crime, drugs, prostitution, serious assaults and over a dozen murders during the past several years » full details »
The Edmonton Police Service web site entry for Andrew Livingstone O'Brien can be seen here.
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This page updated
09:25 2008-08-14.