Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Young dad stabbed to death
Police interview several witnesses but make no arrests
Derek Robert Spence
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A father of two was fatally stabbed outside a North End home early Friday morning, leaving a devastated family.
Police said a 24-year-old man was stabbed at the back of a residence on the 500 block of Manitoba Avenue, but did not say what led to the attack or the number of times the victim was stabbed.
Family and friends identified the victim as Derek Robert Spence, 24.
It's the city's 16th homicide of the year.
A resident of the street said two men were fighting outside the home before the stabbing. Spence's girlfriend, Myrna Walker, 21, said he was stabbed at her parents' home.
She wasn't home at the time Spence was attacked. She said her boyfriend regularly slept at the home.
"I (saw) him yesterday, that's what hurts the most," she said, crying. "Somebody wanted to hurt me and they hurt me good. They hurt me this time. They shouldn't have did that... he just wanted to come see me and I wasn't home."
Neighbourhood residents said people regularly party around the front steps of a duplex.
Friday morning, police tape surrounded a duplex at 554 and 556 Manitoba Ave., with blood visible in front of 552 Manitoba Ave.
Police said the attack doesn't appear gang-related, adding Spence was known to them.
"This does not appear that someone was walking down the street and someone randomly selected this individual and attacked them," police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said. "There appears to be a lot of blanks that need to be filled yet with regards to why this individual was there, and what relationships the victim in this matter had with the individuals at that location, as well as the relationships that this individual may have had with the suspect or suspects involved."
Friday, police could be seen setting up evidence markers in front of the home and down the alley, where there was a pile of clothing on the ground.
Police did not say how many suspects they were seeking in connection with the case. Police interviewed a number of witnesses but no arrests had been made.
Pamela Demas, 24, also said she was dating Spence for about four months. He was kind to her and her four-year-old daughter, she said.
She said he'd been working as a roofer, and that he had an eight-year-old daughter and four-year-old son who did not live with him.
"He was a nice guy," she said.
Demas said Spence told her he was not a gang member, but he liked leaving the North End to visit her home in another area of the city.
"He said it's more better on my side because there's way too much enemies in the North End," she said.
The man's sister, Colleen Spence, said her brother lived with her at an Aberdeen Avenue home. She said police told her a man had stabbed her brother in the chest.
"All I got was a phone call, and I went running," she said.
She said she saw her brother at a family birthday party on Thursday.
"My brother was such a kind guy that he would help anybody, he'd talk to anybody on the street," she said.
She later found out he'd been maced the day before he was fatally attacked.
"He didn't tell me and yesterday he wasn't himself," she said.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 28, 2010 B1
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