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WARNING

Michael Wayne Tunnicliffe, 26, was shot on July 24th, 2011.

Tunnicliffe was Edmonton's 30th homicide victim of the year.

Craig Michael Nagy, 22, was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm while committing an offence, pointing a firearm, unauthorised possession of a firearm in a vehicle, and possession of a loaded restricted firearm.

arrest announced

It began as a quiet evening in a quiet neighbourhood ...

... a newer neighbourhood with neatly-kept houses that mostly looked the same, where people tended to their own business and pretty much nothing ever happened.

It was a warm Sunday night. Several people heard two pops – mostly likely one of those now-rarely heard car backfires, they thought. Then a man was seen staggering down the street – likely drunk, folks assumed.

The man collapsed, falling on his face. One concerned neighbour went to help and noticed the man was bleeding from his stomach. The neighbour's wife called 911.

Paramedics arrived, the man got into the ambulance under his own steam, and everyone thought that was that.

But a few hours later, police arrived and taped off the street. They began asking residents what they might have seen or heard.

Officers said they were investigating a murder – the city's thirtieth in just as many weeks.

Rose Hanchar was visiting with friends in a home that backed onto the alley on the south side of 157th Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets.

She said she heard a loud bang sometime between 10:15 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on July 24th, 2011.

"It sounded like a car backfiring," she said, adding she wondered at the time whether it was a gunshot.

Soon Hanchar heard noises that seemed "out of place" for the neighbourhood, including what sounded like a car speeding.

"It was quiet otherwise, so the sound may have carried," Hanchar said.

Most residents said it was a peaceful neighbourhood, but one man noticed an upswing in police activity in the last month or so.

"I mean even yesterday we saw a cop come ripping through after a couple, I don't know, loud pops," Daryl Sydor said. "I don't know if it was gunfire or fireworks."

Neighbour Leroy Allder also said he heard a noise that sounded like a gunshot. He was one of several people who then saw a man lying on the road, trying to talk on a cellphone.

It was around 10:20 when John Heykants was in his garage across the street and heard the man fall.

"It was like a coconut hitting the ground," he said.

Heykants saw the man spread-eagled on his back. He went over to help after asking his wife to call 911.

"By the time I got out there, there was quite a lot of blood.

"He was struggling to sit up and I just kept trying to convince him to lay down and relax until EMS got here," Heykants said.

"Then he got up and then he tried to make his way across the street and fell ... he just went limp and fell right on his face."

Heykants described the man as a Caucasian who appeared to be in his early 20s with a short buzz cut, wearing sweat pants and a T-shirt. He said the man smelled like he had been drinking and noted that he wasn't wearing any shoes.

"He'd been walking for awhile – his feet were black."

Heykants was sure the man had broken his nose but was otherwise alright.

"I watched him fall," he said. "There's nothing like that feeling, actually seeing someone get injured and there's nothing you can do."

About 10 minutes later, emergency responders arrived. Heykants said they looked under the man's shirt and then rolled him on his back to look "for an exit wound."

"When I saw him last, he was actually walking. He got up and walked into ambulance and he was mumbling something about getting into it at home," Heykants said.

"He couldn't hold a conversation at all. And he kept wanting to get up. And of course we kept trying to keep him from moving around too much.

"He said he'd gotten into it at home. That's about all he said that was clear," Heykants recalled.

"He said he was on his way home, but I've never seen him around here.

"The last thing I thought was, 'OK, great. I did what I could for the guy. He's in capable hands.' "

"That was the last I saw of him and then a little bit after midnight police criusers started showing up and they taped off the area.

"An officer came to the door and asked us if we'd seen anything," he said, "They told me he died.

"I just had the guy there on the road. Yeah, it was kind of a shock. He got right up after they inspected him. He walked into the ambulance," Heykants said.

"I thought he would be okay."

Heykants had lived in the neighbourhood for about six years and despite never have seen the man before he said he felt empathy for his family.

"I have adult children and I'm trying to picture what that phone call would be like," he said. "I just wish it would have turned out better."

Prior to the sudden police presence, residents of the newly-developed Brintnell community on the city's northern edge felt safe.

"It was odd," Heykants said. "Its a pretty quiet [neighbourhood].

"You try to find a neighbourhood in Edmonton that's going to be quiet, where this won't happen, but you can't find that anymore," he said.

Others too thought the evening's event were unusual.

"The odd thing is he got up himself and he walked himself to the ambulance," resident Lesli Parker said.

"I never noticed him in all honesty and he could not have been from that far because he had no shoes on let alone socks or anything," Parker noted. "He was walking barefoot."

While no one seemed to recognise the deceased man, it turned out he lived around the corner and five houses down from where he collapsed.

One neighbour identified him as a man named Mike who had been renting a house in the area with a friend for about eight months.

Byron Anthony, who only knew the man casually, said he had rented the home next door to the man for a year before moving across the street.

The man was quiet and did not host any parties, he said.

"It's a little unnerving," Anthony said. "We've got kids in this area. My kids are usually out here playing."

CBC Edmonton approached two men sitting on the front steps of the home Anthony pointed out. They declined comment.

"It's not really a good time," one said. "If you guys could just leave us alone. We don't know what happened to him."

There wasn't much of a crime scene – just a red stain at the alley's entranceway. Still, police (and media) scoured the area – see images »

During the morning of July 25th, 2011 an autopsy was performed on the man.

Later that day, police announced that 26-year-old Michael Wayne Tunnicliffe had died of a gunshot wound.

Police also said that Tunnicliffe was known to them but no details were provided.

Friends of Tunnicliffe were stunned to hear news of his death – read more »

"He was one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He didn't deserve that at all," friend and former co-worker Jennifer Parsons said.

The two had worked together at East Side Marios a couple of years ago, she said, describing Tunnicliffe as an outgoing, friendly guy.

"I never saw him in a bad mood. He was always trying to get us to laugh – he was a big jokester," Parsons said.

Like Parsons, Chris Monteith also met Tunnicliffe at East Side Marios while working there.

Monteith said the Midland, Michigan native had moved to Edmonton from Detroit where he was dealing with "legal troubles."

He added that Tunnicliffe did time at Edmonton's Remand Centre, but wouldn't elaborate.

"He used to be in a bad spot, kind of a trouble maker, just like I used to be. But we started hanging out and we stayed away from stuff like that," Monteith said.

Instead, the pair spent their time drinking beer and playing video games together.

"We were a lot better than him," Monteith said. "As soon as he came home from work, he would sit there and try and try and try to beat us."

Tunnicliffe's most-recent employer described him as "a really polite, nice guy." He had only been working for Luigi's Concrete for a few weeks before his death.

"He never missed a day of work," foreman Tony Angotti said, adding he was a "very hard worker."

Angotti said that when a crew member went to pick up Tunnicliffe for work Monday morning they were met with police tape. Then Tunnicliffe didn't answer his phone.

"We just thought, whatever. Guys miss work all the time," Angotti said.

"It's very upsetting. He was a really nice guy," Rene Mitchell said.

The foreman's son-in-law worked with Tunnicliffe for about a month before the man's sudden death.

"He was a hardworking kid. He came to work every day," Mitchell said.

He believed Tunnicliffe's father had visited Edmonton shortly before the killing.

A In Memory of Michael Wayne Tunnicliffe (aka Thats What She Said) tribute page was created on Facebook, the popular social networking site, where friends paid honour to the popular man.

Arrest announced

On February 10th, 2012, police announced they had made an arrest in connection with the death of Michael Tunnicliffe.

Craig Michael Nagy, 22, was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm while committing an offence, pointing a firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle, and possession of a loaded restricted firearm.

Nagy’s first court date was set for February 13th.

In a release to media, Staff Sgt. Bill Clark said the city's 2012 murder-free status allowed for continued work on the Tunnicliffe case.

"Of the 45 homicides in 2011 that were investigated by the EPS Homicide Section, we have solved 29 of them," Clark said.

"With no new deaths this year, additional resources for the Homicide Section, and the tireless efforts of our detectives, we’ve been able to make progress on last year's homicide cases.

"We hope to continue with this momentum, because no case is ever closed until it is solved."

No further information was released regarding what led police to Nagy.

Clark's use of the word "solved" required qualification as charges had only been laid in 27 of the year's official count of 47 cases.

Statistics Canada required the Edmonton Police Service to include two cases deemed homicides in 2011 in the annual count even though they took place in previous years (2010 and 2009).

The "solved" number included two police-involved shootings. In two other cases, charges weren't laid (both with strong elements of self defence that precluded the likelihood of conviction).

However the numbers were resolved, homicide detectives still had 16 cases listed as open and ongoing.

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 the individuals named on this web site.
The Last Link on the Left practices fair presentation and the disclosure of relevant interests.
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deadmonton 2011 - michael wayne tunnicliffe