Record of suspect in slaying includes 2017 stabbing
The man who allegedly stabbed Austin Simon to death in what police are probing as a drug-related killing was convicted of violently stabbing a man during an argument in Alberta.
Ignace Kayiranga, 33, was arrested Saturday evening and charged with second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing two days earlier that left 39-year-old Simon bleeding from the neck on the sidewalk near the Shepherds of Good Hope Mission.
Bystanders from a nearby supervised injection site and staff at the shelter rushed to attend to him and tried to in vain to revive the man who was without vital signs when paramedics arrived. He was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Two years ago, Kayiranga, an unskilled labourer who moved between construction jobs, was living in Alberta and stabbed a man in similar circumstances.
On Jan. 8, 2017, RCMP responded to a home on Westwood Drive in Fort McMurray. Police said Kayiranga had stabbed a man during a heated argument, then fled. Two days later, police arrested Kayiranga and charged him with aggravated assault and multiple breaches of his conditions. The stabbing victim in that case survived his injuries.
Kayiranga served 167 days in an Alberta jail for the stabbing.
The Toronto Star reported in 2014 that Kayiranga had left Edmonton for Fort McMurray in September 2013. He told the Star he spent the first few weeks in Alberta sleeping at the Salvation Army and later in a basement.
Eventually, he got a job at Walmart, but ended up wandering the city’s construction sites, looking for any work he could get.
But according to his criminal record in Alberta, which includes convictions in Grande Prairie, Edmonton and Fort McMurray, Kayiranga moved around both in that province and in Ontario, where he returned throughout the years.
His criminal record in this province shows that by 2015 he came back to Ontario, where he was charged with theft, assault and criminal harassment.
He spent six days in jail for assault in February 2016.
His convictions in Alberta include multiple assaults, threatening to kill a cop, mischief and several breaches of his court-ordered conditions. He was repeatedly prohibited from possessing a knife.
Court files in Ontario suggest Kayiranga came back to this province sometime this year, where he was charged with assaulting a peace officer, possessing a concealed weapon, mischief and more breaches.
Simon’s family has described him as a charismatic, handsome, devoted father and as a big brother who always protected his sister.
Police continue to investigate his killing. syogaretnam@postmedia.com twitter.com/shaaminiwhy