THUNDER BAY — Police are investigating the death of a man as a suspected homicide.
Thunder Bay police officers were called to a residential address on the 200 block of Pearl Street around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, where the man's body was found.
Police said the death is being investigated as a homicide, which would be the city's 14th recorded case in 2022.
Det.-Sgt. Jason Rybak on Friday said they responded to an unknown trouble call.
"Our uniformed patrol officers discovered a deceased male in a residence there, at which time the members of my unit, the major crime unit, became involved, as it was clearly a homicide upon first arriving," Rybak said.
"I can tell you that it's a 37-year-old male. We're in the process of working with next-of-kin and notifications now to allow them some time to grieve on this information."
Rybak said while police have not made any arrests, it's likely any suspects knew the victim.
"Having said that, we keep our mind open to any possibility. I will be asking if there is any video in the area, contact our investigators. We get lucky a lot of times with video. People don't realize what they might have on their home video surveillance systems. So the smallest little thing may not mean much to them, but it could mean a lot to us tracking the individuals down," Rybak said.
He added investigators are reviewing video to try to determine what might have happened prior to police becoming involved.
Rybak said it's too soon to speak to motives, but acknowledged police are fully aware of the increased drug activity in Thunder Bay, spurred by gang activity.
"But at this point, I can't (say) that," Rybak said. "I can say it's not a firearm related homicide. That's about as far as I can go at this time. Obviously we can't get into the cause of death until we have the full post-mortem done."
Police are continuing to hold the scene, and said the post-mortem examination will likely be conducted in Toronto.
With files from Leith Dunick
