Homicide victim had ‘big, big heart’
Joshua Brière’s life ended after an out-of-control fight at his apartment early Saturday, with his collapse outside in the street and dying fast from knife wounds to his torso.
His vital signs were absent when paramedics arrived on Clyde Avenue around 3 a.m. They tried in vain to revive him while Ottawa patrol officers preserved key evidence in the city’s 16th homicide of the year and detectives hunted for the young man’s suspected killer.
Brière, 26, had moved into the apartment a few months ago, according to neighbours, and friends say he had turned his life around for the better. He spent a lot of time working out and had a reputation for caring, his grieving family said.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone with a heart as big as his. He had a big, big heart,” his shaken father, Denis Brière, said Sunday.
He said it wouldn’t surprise him if his slain son was just trying to help when he was knifed to death.
The grieving father told the Citizen his mind has been racing since he learned his son had been killed in a “fight over something stupid that went ballistic.”
He also heaped praise on Ottawa police, saying they’ve been “fabulous and really professional” in his family’s darkest hour.
Police had said Saturday they were hunting for the man they believe killed Brière, and his family says police have since told them a suspect was under police guard at The Ottawa Hospital, though police haven’t responded for confirmation.
Police did say on Sunday that they were no longer looking for a suspect in the slaying though they had yet to charge anyone, and the round-the-clock investigation continued.
As a steady rain continued on Saturday morning, officers from the major crimes unit were taking video of the bloodstained scene on the normally quiet street where Joshua Brière drew his final breaths.