`DOMESTIC' HOMICIDE
Son charged in father's death
A retired Ottawa police officer who was allegedly killed by his son in Val-des-Monts on Sunday night is being mourned as a “gentle giant.”
Guy Giroux, 63, was found dead at a home on chemin de la Moisson around 11:30 p.m. by MRC des Collines-de-l'Outaouais police officers.
The homicide case was transferred to provincial police Sûreté du Québec, who said Monday the retired officer's body had been found with signs of violence.
Giroux's son, Marc-André Giroux, 31, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in what Quebec police are calling a “domestic” homicide.
Guy Giroux joined the Ottawa force in November 1981 and retired 31 years later in February 2012.
The Sûreté du Québec advised Ottawa police of his death.
In 1993, he spoke to the Citizen about being a youth officer with the service and encouraged students to talk with him or any of the other eight officers who were regularly in schools to help with discipline and counselling.
Former Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau tweeted Monday that he “had the privilege of working with Guy when he was a detective in our youth section and I was his Staff Sergeant.”
The retired chief said Giroux was “committed to giving youth a helping hand.”
Indeed, officers recalled how good he was with kids, standing in front of them as a police officer they could trust.
Giroux also previously worked as an Ottawa police detective in the service's general assignment section.
Gerry Kinnear, a retired Ottawa police sergeant and former homicide detective, worked with Giroux as his first partner on the beat downtown in the early 1980s.
“It's the most unfortunate of homicides,” he told the Citizen.
“Guy was such a nice man. For a guy like Guy Giroux to die in that manner? I just have no words to express it.”
Kinnear said the first thing he noticed about Giroux was his size. “He was just muscle, all muscle.”
Back then, as they patrolled the ByWard Market, Kinnear said he thought he was holding his own as a police officer dealing with criminals. “I never had a problem dealing with the bad guys, nobody ever talked back to me until the first day Guy took a day off.”
Giroux was the silent strength backing him up on the job. But he never took advantage of his size, Kinnear said.
Officers marvelled at his hands, described as being as large as a grizzly bear's or comparable to a baseball mitt.
One said he needed two hands to shake one of Giroux's.
“He was just an easygoing, straight-talking guy,” Kinnear said.
As their time together progressed, he saw what a family man Giroux was.
He worked hard all day, but as soon as his shift was done, he went
He was an imposing individual until he spoke. It was at that time that I realized he could melt an iceberg with his kindness.
straight home to his family, Kinnear said.
“They just seemed to have such a great life together,” Kinnear said. “I just can't understand it, none of us can.”
Ottawa police Insp. Tim Hodgins told the Citizen that “Guy was one of the most hard-working and honest officers I ever met.”
Like others, Hodgins remembers his imposing stature.
“He was an imposing individual until he spoke. It was at that time that I realized he could melt an iceberg with his kindness.”
Greg Brown, a former police officer, said retired police officers who knew Giroux were shocked to hear the news.
“These are women and men that have seen the worst humanity can dish out over decades in their decorated years of service to our community and they are collectively in shock at the news that `Big Guy' has been (allegedly) murdered,” Brown said. “These are tough people reduced to tears at this tragic news.”
It was Giroux's character, as well as his sense of humour during long investigations, that Brown said he will remember.
Marc-André Giroux is next scheduled to appear in court on Monday.