Rooming-house stabbing victim feared ‘erratic’ neighbour, grieving friend says

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/07/2023 (842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man found stabbed to death inside his West End rooming house had grown increasingly afraid of an “erratic” neighbour, voicing concerns to his friends and expressing a desire to move.

“He felt highly uncomfortable, and, I would say scared,” said April Girardeau, a friend of Marcel Alphonse Painchaud, who was found inside a residential suite in the 300 block of Langside Street on July 8.

“He told me his neighbour was mentally ill, and would do a lot of strange things in the house.… There was nobody he was more concerned about.”

Winnipeg Police Service officers found Painchaud, 64, when they responded to a report of an assault at about 10:30 p.m. Painchaud was stabbed in his suite after an altercation, police said in a release.

Abdiazia Ahmed Saeed, 42, was arrested two days later.

Investigators believe the men were tenants in the same building and knew each other.

Saeed is charged with second-degree murder and remains in custody. The charge has not been proven in court.

Girardeau, who knew the victim for more than two decades, had recently been helping him apply for an apartment in Osborne Village.

She last saw him the night before he was killed.

“I and a few others were encouraging Marcel to move into my block, a safer neighborhood and subsidized,” she said, speaking near the seniors housing complex where she lives.

Painchaud was waiting for his 65th birthday so he could collect his Old Age Security pension check before leaving the Langside suite, Girardeau said.

“If he could’ve held on for another few months, he may still be alive.”

Saeed pleaded guilty last year to aggravated assault after admitting to stabbing a stranger five times in the back.

He was sentenced in March 2022 to 42 months in prison and three years supervised probation. At the time of sentencing, he had already served the equivalent of approximately 30 months in custody, which was deducted from his remaining sentence.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Saeed’s victim, a stranger, was “acting erratically” Aug. 7, 2020, when, he confronted Saeed on Main Street near the Northern Hotel and punched him in the face. At the time, Saeed was recovering from a broken jaw suffered in a random attack months earlier.

Saeed’s attacker walked to the Northern Hotel where he continued to confront people and started fighting with an unknown man before Saeed approached his attacker from behind and stabbed him repeatedly in the back.

The man was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries, including lacerations to his bowel and colon.

Saeed was arrested later that day.

According to a pre-sentence report provided to court, Saeed immigrated to Canada as a child from Somaliland, where he was a witness to genocide and civil war. His upbringing included physical and sexual abuse and he attempted suicide several times, according to the report.

At 36, he started using methamphetamine.

Saeed suffered a traumatic brain injury and memory loss following a motor vehicle accident, and was kidnapped and tortured by his fellow countrymen, an incident “for which he still bears significant physical and emotional scars,” provincial court Judge Rachel Rusen said at his sentencing hearing.

Saeed, court heard, has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, mixed personality disorder and a psychotic disorder.

He has no family supports in the city, but has a history of volunteering and “seeking out resources,” Rusen said.

While incarcerated, Saeed completed several Bible study courses and other counselling opportunities at a time when pandemic restrictions limited the availability of programming options in custody, Rusen said.

He is slated to appear in court Friday.

Girardeau hopes for justice for the victim, who she described as a “compassionate” and “gentle” man.

“He had a huge sense of humour and was very intelligent. He loved talking about anything, even if he didn’t agree with the viewpoint,” she said. “Who would kill such a nice man as him?”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca