last link on the left › deadmonton

In the wake of the fatal shooting of Andrew Livingstone O'Brien on August 5th, 2008, media attention focused on Edmonton's 107th Avenue's reputation for violence.

With real estate development in the city's urban core tearing down many downtown haunts, inner city residents have found themselves displaced and forced into moving to surrounding areas.

The Avenue of Nations area has long been a community that has welcomed newcomers, most recently Somalians and the Sudanese. With its numerous walk-up apartments, the district has been the first home for several generations of new immigrants.

And 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.

It also doesn't help that the area is dotted with halfway houses, the first step for many leaving prison.

Those who call the area home have noticed the change in the neighbourhood's character and hope that effort will be made to restore a sense of safety and peace of mind.

"I've seen police driving around in neighborhoods and I've seen drug deals go down, and the cops just don't care, they drive right by," one woman said after O'Brien's murder.

"I've seen enough drug deals to know what's going on pretty much. Unless they're doing a sting that I don't know of, which I doubt."

"This doesn't surprise me, the gangs here have been turfing it out here now for weeks," building caretaker Victor Sagar said after the city's latest homicide.

"This has been an ongoing thing here. A few weeks ago there was a guy stabbed just over there, and it happened again behind this building."

"I've lived here for a while and it's worse than it ever was here," said an area tenant.

"I have no choice, I had to find a cheap place, it's a very cheap place, but I don't like this at all."

Others said they would like to see more police, not just in vehicles but walking the beat.

Edmonton police told media that in any 24-hour period four officers patrol the area on foot, compared to eight who walk Whyte Avenue on Friday and Saturday nights.

"There's moms with baby strollers who (roll) up and down the street," Darlene said of the area in the day time. But at night, "it's a rotten area," when the hookers and drug dealers take over.

Mading Ngor, a resident for just two months, observed a parallel between 107th Avenue's day and night personalities and his home in Sudan.

"This is like my country of Sudan, in one part of the country there is peace and in the other there is war and genocide," he said.

"It's not a nice area," said another man.

"They usually don't bother any of the guys," he said, referring to the Avenue's regulars. "But I'm nervous just walking to the store by myself. I'll see these guys wired up on crack walking down the street. It's a little freaky but they don't usually bother me."

While some caretakers and property owners have kept their buildings tidy, and taking such steps as installing floor-to-ceiling security hinges on exterior doors, other apartment yards are littered with syringes, condoms, mattresses and old furniture.

Just days before the latest round of violence on 107th Avenue, the Edmonton Journal published a story on the problems that plague the area just north of downtown. The Journal was running a series of articles about the city's ethnic makeup now that the provincial capital's population had surpassed the 750,000 mark.

Native, Asian and African gangs frequent the area. Also easily spotted along the stretch between 101st Street and 116th Streets are about 25 phone booths, conspicuous by their presence in the age of the ubiquitous cell phone.

Police say the phone booths double as hotlines, with users and low-level dealers commanding them to arrange their scores. And where there's drugs ... guns, gangs and prostitution soon follow.

According to vice detective Jim Morrissey, the prostitution problem is just as big on 107th as it is on Edmonton's notorious 118th Avenue – with the about 100 street prostitutes having links to gangs and almost all of them addicted to drugs.

"She's supporting a drug habit, she's supporting a man or men, she gets assaulted," Morrissey told the Journal.

According to beat officers, the women snag their tricks during the drive-home rush hour. Then they chase after their own rush.

"They'll get their john, get their cash and it's straight to the drug house," one officer who worked the strip said.

They're busiest "whenever the street lights go on and whenever they go off," another officer said, noting secondary peak times occur during the morning when the women meet johns on their way to work ... and any time after dark.

The officers feel it's possible to turn the area around. While they don't know exactly how – money for beautification to instill pride, more officers on the street, and more social programs for the homeless, the addicted, and the mentally ill – were options offered.

However, one officer noted that solving the problem for one area simply creates a problem for another.

"We push the transients one way and then the next guy pushes them the next way," he said.

As part of their story, the Journal published a graphic pinpointing the area's recent homicides.

#1 – 63-year-old William George Ruptash was found dead April 24th, 2007 after being stabbed in the neck in the Capital Tower highrise at 10028 106 Avenue. Case is open and active.

#2 – 38-year-old Ola Tinineh Moses was shot several times inside the Urban Stylez clothing store at 110th Street on May 6th, 2007. On December 2nd a prime suspect in the case, Nawar Jawad, was found beaten, stripped naked and burned in a ditch in northeastern Edmonton. Moses was the city's twelfth murder of the year, Jawad the thirty-first. Both cases remain unsolved.

#3 – 32-year-old Wing Fung was stabbed to death inside the Garden Bakery at 10019 106 Avenue on December 9th, 2007. Two men were charged: one with second-degree murder, the other with assault with a weapon.

#4 – 28-year-old Jason Anthony Kaye was beaten and left in the alley south of 107 Avenue near 96 Street near his rooming house on January 23rd, 2006. No charges have been laid.

#5 – 19-year-old Omar Mohamed Abdalla was shot inside the Palmont Place apartment building at 10823 115 Street on February 12th, 2006. Police figure Abdalla's death was gang-related and the case remains open.

#6 – 35-year-old Dung Tri Tran died of gunshot wounds in his car near 112th Street on July 24th, 2006. Tran bailed out of his Infinti north of 107th Avenue, blood coming from his mouth, nose and chest, and then collapsed on a sidewalk. The car continued rolling southward, across the avenue, coming to rest against a building. The gang-related death remains unsolved.

#7 – 52-year-old Russell Ross died of head injuries on October 24th, 2006 from a beating he received days earlier in an alley near 96th Street and 107A Avenue. Three males, two 16-year-olds and a 14-year-old, were each charged with three counts of assault causing bodily harm.

#8 – 51-year-old Kim Peter Arseneault died from a blow to the head on December 18th, 2006 in his home at 10726 107 Street. His roommate, 31-year-old Roy Robert King, later pleaded guilty to manslaughter. It was thought that Arseneault's death arose from an argument over the cutting down of a Christmas tree in a public park.

#9 – 57-year-old Douglas Milmine was stabbed May 2nd, 2005 in a recently condemned rooming house at 9338 107A Avenue as he was moving out some of his belongings. Norma Jean McCallum, 38, an aquaintance of the deceased, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

#10 – 42-year-old Ronald Boucher was stomped on and beaten before a knife-blade found a way to his heart during a fight over an outstanding debt outside Rosie's Bar and Grill at 10604 101 Street on June 5th, 2005. Leonard Bellam, 34, and Peter Arnold Cardinal, 39, were charged with second-degree murder, but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

#11 – 54-year-old Denis Beaudoin was beaten by a bunch of young toughs on August 14th, 2005 near 95th Street and 105th Avenue and died ten days later. Case remains open.

#12 – 36-year-old Dana Todd Pollock died outside the Red Cherry Restaurant and Lounge on September 11th, 2004 while coming to the aid of a friend. Pollock was stabbed several times and staggered across the avenue before collapsing in the middle of 108th Street. Case remains open.

#13 – 53-year-old Clarence Burton was found unconscious in the hallway of an apartment building on October 6th, 2004. He later died of a head injury received in a fight over a drug debt. A man was charged with manslaughter.

#14 – 53-year-old Jing Zhang was found in a closet of a third-floor apartment suite on October 25th, 2004. Her body was so badly decomposed her cause of death could not be determined. Police figure Zhang had been dead for three weeks and they were unable to locate a man who lived in the suite with her.

Updates

Since this page was first created the toll along the deadly strip continued to mount.

2008

50-year-old Andrew Rademacher was discovered June 29th lying in a pool of blood near an abandoned home near 95th Street and 107th A Avenue. A woman was charged with aggravated assault.

44-year-old Fabian DeLorme was beaten with golf clubs at 10528 98 Street on September 5th. Two men were charged with aggravated assault.

60-year-old Albert (Paschal) Lafontaine was found suffering from head injuries in Mary Burlie Park at 10465 97 Street on October 24th. Police consider his death suspicious.

22-year-old Quentin Edward L'Hirondelle died of blood loss due to a stab wound to the chest inside Milan Manor at 10617 107 Street on November 8th. Two men were charged in connection with his murder.

39-year-old Richard Joseph Whitford was found stabbed to death November 30th outside the Winston Manor apartment building at 11505 107 Avenue. Police suspect the homeless man's death was drug-related.

2009

24-year-old Landis Tyson Stick was stabbed to death on February 19th in front of the Trinity B apartment building at 10720 104 Street. The police investigation remains ongoing.

36-year-old Shawn Michael Price was shot May 10th during a scuffle with police at 10207 107 Avenue. The case was investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team.

38-year-old Floyd James Horvath was stabbed July 10th near the corner of 114th Street and 107th Avenue. Police said Horvath died during a robbery spree committed by a 23-year-old man and a 15-year-old teen.

2011

23-year-old Mohamud Mohamed Jama was shot dead inside a bar at 11124 107 Avenue on January 1st.

34-year-old Gerry Oar was stabbed during an altercation in a crack shack at 10715 96 Street on March 5th.

49-year-old Michael Roach was stabbed behind the George Spady Centre at 10015 105A Avenue on April 3rd.

42-year-old Ronald George Primeau was stabbed on May 16th near 106th Avenue and 103rd Street during an apparent street fight.

43-year-old Abdi Ali Mohamud was shot on June 3rd near 8618 106 Avenue. Police said it was a case of mistaken identity.

22-year-old Bruce Dumais was stabbed June 19th in front of 10625 107 Avenue while he was on his way to buy a package of cigarettes.

57-year-old William Arthur Reid Hill was found beaten inside a home at 10907 97 Street on June 23rd.

30-year-old Eric Larry Cardinal died of a stab wound suffered in Mary Burlie Park, 10465 97 Street, on July 28th.

44-year-old Eric Dexter Janvier was stabbed July 30th in front of the Boyle Street Services building at 10116 105 Avenue.

All the information presented on this page has been compiled primarily from published media reports and should not be interpreted as having legal bearing or other prejudice against individuals named on this web site.
The Last Link on the Left practices fair presentation and the disclosure of relevant interests.
Mouseover for image credits.

deadmonton - problems persist on the avenue of nations