THUNDER BAY — Gordon Malcolm says he lives on the same floor, and very close to where Thunder Bay police are still holding the scene of a homicide at the McIvor Court apartment building.
“It was startling, of course,” he says of learning about the case.
City police said they were called to the six-storey apartment building on Lincoln Street, located off Vickers Street South, shortly before 10 p.m. on Tuesday over reports of a man with life-threatening injuries. Police later confirmed the man died in hospital from those injuries.
Malcolm said he knew the victim.
“There's so many people here that you know and you don't know, and then when you find out that you know the person—not that much, but it's enough that you know the person, right?” he said, adding that their interactions were often “just to say hi and bye.”
“When they have little gatherings here and (I’ve) seen him down there a few times and what have you, and just when you're walking by him in in the hallway or whatever you just to say hi,” he continued. “He's a very pleasant man.”
McIvor Court is operated by the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board, and is a housing complex for people over 50.
Janet Kerr says she’s been living at McIvor Court for 10 years and that this recent incident has left her “terrified.”
“If it can happen under our roof, it can happen in our own place and it's scary,” she said.
For Sherry Haney, who’s been living in the building for less than a year, this week’s homicide added to her pre-existing sense of not feeling safe. “Anxiety,” she said of how the recent incident has made her feel.
“I don't come out of my apartment after six unless I come to the common room and we paint,” she said.
Both Haney and Kerr added that they regularly ask building security escort them back to their apartments.
Police have said their major crimes and forensic identification units are involved in the investigation, but haven’t released many other details.
Malcolm said he feels safe with the police presence around but he’s thinking of what things will be like when they release the scene. “(It’s) startling and it's very shocking, you know, like, why is this happening?”
