THUNDER BAY - Thunder Bay Police continue to hold the scene of a sudden death on the south side of the city as a post-mortem on the victim is conducted.
According to Const. Julie Tilbury of the Thunder Bay Police Service, investigators are awaiting the results of the post-mortem to confirm the identity of the victim and the cause of death.
“After we get those results, we will determine the direction of the investigation,” she said. “We are still holding the scene. That is the proper procedure and we are waiting on that before we make and further determination.”
Police were called to the 300 block of South Marks Street Monday afternoon at approximately 4:50 p.m. for a report of a severely injured male. The male was transported to hospital by ambulance where he was pronounced dead.
On Tuesday, witnesses said two ambulances were seen travelling to the hospital with a police escort, but Tilbury confirmed that only one person was transported to hospital.
A green tent was set up covering what appeared to be pools of blood and officers were interviewing nearby residents.
The incident left many area residents shocked and several people said nothing like this has ever happened in the neighbourhood before.
“It’s a quiet residential neighbourhood,” said resident, Patrick Cully. “Generally it’s good people. You see a lot of families and a lot of older people. Usually you don’t hear of any crime in the neighbourhood, so I was quite surprised for South Marks.”
However, Cully and other residents said the end of Marks, closer to Arthur Street, does feel less safe at times.
“It tends to be on the north side of Marks Street,” Cully added. “It seems that the neighbourhood on this side of Arthur Street is decent, but once you cross over to the other side of Arthur Street, it seems to get a little rougher and more violent.”
“This is not something we should expect to happen in our community,” Tilbury added. “I think for probably everyone who saw this and were around when this happened, it was probably very unnerving.”
The investigation is ongoing and Tilbury asked anyone with any information to contact Thunder Bay Police at 684-1200.
“It is still very early in the investigation,” she said. “Anyone with information we ask them to come forward. Sometimes those smallest bits of information are going to be what lead investigators to understanding what happened here.”
