Few leads in hunt for teen suspect
Hackett sought in stabbing of Brandon Volpi
The father of a young man killed in downtown Ottawa while celebrating his prom night one month ago says the weeks have grown long waiting for Brandon Volpi’s accused killer to be caught.
“My mother’s frustrated that the kid’s still loose, but in the end it doesn’t bring my son back,” Danny Volpi said. “My son’s gone but justice should be served.”
Devontay Hackett, 18, has been on the lam from police since the killing. A Canada-wide warrant for Hackett’s arrest on a seconddegree murder charge was issued in the days following the June 7 stabbing, but he continues to elude police.
Police retrieved video footage that showed pockets of fights breaking out on Besserer Street in front of Les Suites Hotel in the early hours of June 7. Students from St. Patrick’s High School, where Brandon Volpi was a stu- dent, and St. Pius X High School, where Hackett was a student, were staying at the hotel for their prom after-parties.
The footage shows a suspect approaching Volpi in a fatal altercation that lasted mere moments before the man friends described as everyone’s big brother collapsed. Volpi was stabbed several times but it’s believed a knife to the chest killed him.
Tips on Hackett’s whereabouts have come in to police since, but haven’t proven to be solid.
“It’s just frustrating, you know, waiting for that time to come when he gets apprehended,” Volpi said.
The grieving father has been contacted by police in recent weeks but he’s not hearing much from major-crime investigators, who continue to work the case — the only one of three Ottawa homicides this year in which an arrest hasn’t been made.
“They don’t want to say nothing to me, and that’s how it is,” Volpi said.
Staff Sgt. Bruce Pirt said police are still seeking the public’s assistance with any information about where Hackett might be.
While investigators initially believed Hackett had remained in the Ottawa area immediately after the killing, police now say that, given the weeks that have passed, he could be elsewhere, though they have few leads.
The circumstances surrounding the killing — young men fuelled with alcohol and looking to settle bad blood — are circumstances that Volpi can understand. He was a teen on the verge of adulthood once, too, but settled disagreements with fist fights that were nowhere near the level of violence police allege was dealt to his son.
Hackett’s older brother was shot and injured by police in 2010 in an event that close friends believe changed his outlook on life. He had close ties to homicide victims Sheldon O’Grady and Malik Adjokatcher. Police do not believe the three cases are connected, but those who knew Hackett say he grew to be in and out of trouble as a result.
“Everybody’s had a hard life,” Volpi said. “But you don’t kill someone. It’s something you don’t do.”
Volpi wants Hackett to turn himself in.
“He can’t run forever.”