Violent altercation leads to fatality at north end complex
Firefighters responded first after a man visited north-end firehall seeking help
Homicide detectives were investigating the death of a 29-yearold man after violence broke out Thursday morning at a north-side apartment.
Firefighters were the first to respond to the scene near Londonderry Heights apartment complex at 7220 144 Ave. around 4 a.m. when someone knocked on the front door of Londonderry Fire Station 14 asking for assistance. Firefighters applied first aid before EMS arrived and took the man to hospital.
Police said they were called to an altercation. A 40-year-old man was also taken to hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries.
Tanya Pollock, who lives on the third floor of the building, said she heard screaming around 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
“The walls were banging — it sounded like someone was trying to rattle doors,” said Pollock, adding she saw a man being taken out of the complex on a stretcher by EMS. “They were all screaming … Somebody got really damaged, like really hurt bad, like a really high screech of a scream.”
Pollock said emergency crews were trying to resuscitate the man on the stretcher and another man came out of the apartment who appeared to be injured.
Police taped off the building as children in the neighbourhood headed to three nearby schools, M.E. LaZerte High School, Londonderry junior high school and Father Leo Green elementary school.
An autopsy was scheduled for late Thursday.
If confirmed, the case would be the city’s 24th homicide of the year.