Man fatally stabbed in Broadway back lane

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/08/2023 (806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shawn Zabolotny and longtime friend George Nickolas Demos had planned to spend Aug. 5 helping a mutual friend repair the frame of a pickup truck.

Instead, Zabolotny sat in mourning with Demos’s older brother, after his pal was senselessly slain early that day in a West Broadway alleyway — the city’s 20th homicide of the year.

Demos, 50, was found unresponsive by police in the lane behind the 200 block of Furby Street at about 3:20 a.m. He later died in hospital of stab wounds.

Winnipeg Police Service homicide detectives have since arrested two suspects, an adult and a teen boy.

“He was a very good, kind-hearted person,” Zabolotny, 52, said in a tearful interview Thursday. “He didn’t have a hurting bone in his body, he was a very caring guy.”

The two friends, who met in childhood in the West End, both had parents die recently and had been spending time supporting each other, including the night of Aug. 4.

“I was with him a couple of hours before his murder,” said Zabolotny.

The pair had spent the night socializing, with Demos planning to stay the night at Zabolotny’s home in Sargent Park so they could go help a friend with the truck repairs the next day, rather than return to his home in the Unicity area.

“When I woke up in the morning, he wasn’t here, he had left,” said Zabolotny.

“I fell asleep about 11 p.m., and my roommate… (Demos) asked her for a ride down to Maryland (Street) and Broadway to visit a girl that I didn’t know.”

Zabolotny said his roommate told Demos to be careful, telling him she would give him a ride back to Zabolotny’s if needed.

Demos was later attacked by two alleged assailants with an unknown motive.

“Where he died, he was less than two houses away from knocking on a good friend’s door,” said Zabolotny.

A police spokesman said earlier this week the victim did not know either of the accused.

WPS spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said Thursday she could not speak to any possible motive in Demos’s slaying, but noted detectives are still investigating.

Police have asked anyone with information, or video surveillance footage in the area, to call the homicide unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

Jonathan Michael Gladue, 23, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Gladue has just one past conviction: possessing a weapon dangerous to the public peace in March 2018. He was given a year of supervised probation and time served, court records show.

A 17-year-old male is also set to be charged with second-degree murder. His name cannot be released under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

“I want to attend the trial. George didn’t deserve this,” said Zabolotny. “He was a soul that should have stayed on this earth until his time.”

Demos, who is survived by two brothers, had worked as a janitor and was a lover of music and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football team, he said.

“I just wish George could be still here. I enjoyed my time with him,” said Zabolotny. “Someone that you could sit around a bonfire with and have a beer and enjoy his company.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca