Ottawa teen charged in Kingston motel slaying
Ottawa 19-year-old charged in slaying at Kingston motel
A 38-year-old man is dead and a 19-year-old Ottawa man is in custody after a shooting at a west Kingston motel early Wednesday.
Aaron Lewis is charged with second-degree murder.
Emergency services were called to the Kozy Inn on Princess Street, just west of Centennial Drive, around 1 a.m.
Frontenac Paramedic Services said they took a man with critical injuries to Kingston General Hospital, where he later died.
The victim was Jean Guy Vincent of Kingston, Kingston police Det.- Sgt. Jay Finn said.
The motel has about 40 units. The majority of the residents stay there by the month.
Vincent was killed in a groundfloor corner unit.
Police “located a male victim with a gunshot wound,” Finn said.
They secured the area and gave Vincent first aid before paramedics took him to hospital. He was pronounced dead at 2 a.m.
The suspect had fled by the time police arrived.
About an hour later, a man returned to the motel and surrendered to a patrol officer.
Finn said the accused and victim knew each other.
“We don’t believe there’s any danger to the public,” he said.
Finn said no one else had been charged in the killing, but left the door open for further charges.
“This is an ongoing investigation. We’re only 12 hours into the investigation,” he said.
Finn said police were unable to say what the motive was for the killing.
“We’re not prepared to say at this time because we’re still investigating the matter, but it wasn’t a stranger-on-stranger situation.”
Police were still collecting evidence at the scene, Finn said.
“We conducted an initial canvass and we’re in the process of reinterviewing people that reside at the Kozy Inn,” he said.
Police have recovered a rifle they believe was used in the crime.
More information will be released in the coming days, Finn said.
The major-crime unit, special investigations division and the forensic identification unit were working the case, Finn said.
An autopsy on Vincent’s body was performed Wednesday afternoon at Kingston General Hospital.
Sheila Yeager lives in a unit across from the murder scene.
“I got up this morning about 6 a.m. and opened the door and there was all kinds of police and tape over (everything ),” she said. “I had to ask the girl next door what happened, and she said Jean is deceased.”
Yeager said the man charged is a cousin of a woman who lives in the motel.
“I couldn’t pick him out if I saw him,” she said.
Finn said police regularly visit the Kozy Inn for calls.
“I’ve been here eight years and it’s eight years too long,” Yeager said. “I have to find a place that will take my kitty.”
This is Kingston’s first homicide of 2018. The last homicide in the city was committed in a home on Graceland Avenue last December.