[vid]

Thunder Bay records murder-free year
Tb News Source | January 2, 2009
http://www.tbsource.com/localnews/index.asp?cid=114641

The Thunder Bay Police Service hopes 2009 looks like 2008 when it comes to the number of reported homicides– zero.

The last time the city had a homicides-free year was 2004.

Executive officer Chris Adams said the city usually sees two or three murders a year, so 2008 was significant.

'It’s a rare thing and it’s something we’re grateful of obviously because homicide is a very significant, traumatic event to not only the people directly involved but also the other people that have to deal with it; family members and others who are going to be affected for the rest of their lives,' he said.

Homicides aren’t a common occurrence in Thunder Bay, Adams said, with the last five years seeing a low of zero and a high of three per year.

But police do witness close calls.

'We’ve often seen that in some of the stabbings, you start reading into them and realize how close they actually came,' said Adams. 'Or is some cases a very violent fight escalates and someone is either looking at a very serious head injury or other injuries. But primarily the stab wounds you see, it’s a miracle sometimes that people actually survive from them'

In fact, Adams attributed the health care, particularly paramedics and emergency room personnel, for keeping Thunder Bay murder-free last year.

'If you look at someone who is a stabbing victim, very often the stab wounds are very serious and in some cases come close to actually severing major arteries, but I think that’s a testimony of the quality of professional care that people get from services like Thunder Bay Superior North EMS,' Adams said. 'When those paramedics are on the scene, they’re providing a lot of very significant vast treatment initially.'

Adams also said in many homicide cases in Thunder Bay, they incidents occur between people who know each other and they are quite often spur-of-the-moment events.

'Very often an assault either with a weapon or without can sometimes lead to a homicide at a later point … after a period of time and treatment,' he said.

He also said almost half of the violent crimes in Thunder Bay are alcohol related.

Murders in Thunder Bay over the past five years:

* 2004 – 0
* 2005 – 3
* 2006 – 2
* 2007 – 2
* 2008 - 0

2007 is three if you count my uncle's murder which was only ruled a homicide in mid 2008. Either that or they don't count it because the murderer was white. [/bitter]

Also, I think 2004 had one murder in the CMA. The son of Nishnawbe Aski Nation's chief was killed in Fort William First Nation during a summer, but I can't remember which year exactly. I'm pretty sure it was 2004, though.