Neighbour suggests carbon monoxide may have killed homeless man, friend in tent

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This article was published 12/12/2023 (682 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The day after two bodies were found in a North Point Douglas park, a lone tent was pitched on the grounds and belongings strewn about in the snow.

They included winter clothes stuffed in suitcases, unfinished take-out food, foam sponges turned into a makeshift bed and a propane tank and heater, covered in ash.

The bodies were found at about 1:15 p.m. Monday, after medical personnel received reports of two people in cardiac arrest at the temporary encampment. While police and paramedics are not sharing the names of the people or the how they died, neighbours say the tent has been there since October, home to a man in his 40s named Alex, and a woman who visited.

“He was a hard-working person, he would’ve given his shirt off his back to give to you to make sure you were OK,” Jonathan Sheard, who lives directly across from Joe Zuken Heritage Park on Euclid Avenue, said Tuesday.

Sheard said there was often evidence of drug use around the tent. Alex was known for doing odd jobs in the neighbourhood and even joined his family for a bonfire recently.

Sheard, who said Alex and his friend regularly used the propane tank and heater to stay warm inside the tent, wondered whether they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“He had a propane tank with a heater hooked up to it, so of course, even when you’d go open up the (tent)… it was all you could smell, just the smoke,” Sheard said.

The Winnipeg Police Service isn’t sharing any details, but confirmed they are not investigating the deaths as a criminal incident.

“Yesterday, and even into today, the cause of death is still pending, and there’s information that this is more of a medical situation based on circumstances… there could be a number of factors,” WPS spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said.

“We’ve had the conversations in the past with respect to the encampments and these individuals making efforts to stay warm, whether it’s the use of heaters or fire. So there could be an issue of inhaled carbon monoxide… but again, I don’t want to speculate or make any assumptions.”

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said her department was working to connect with the families of the two people.

“Two people have lost their life to this extreme weather,” Smith said, wiping away tears. “Something that we’re working really quickly on addressing, getting people out of the cold, extreme weather. We’re working really hard on a winter strategy.”

Smith said outreach teams are checking in on homeless encampments and bus shelters as winter weather has set in.

“Outreach teams are going out to check on folks, to get them resourced, getting them into housing, getting them supported in different organizations,” she said.

“These folks that don’t feel safe in the shelters, including women, including (LGBTTQ+) folks, getting them, whether it’s in a hotel room, because they don’t want to go to a shelter, or if there is social housing or any other kind of housing available, we’re getting them into those units right away using rent supplements.

“We are using every resource that we can to get people housed immediately and out of the bus shelters, out of encampments, so that we can get them out of the cold weather.”

“We are using every resource that we can to get people housed immediately and out of the bus shelters, out of encampments, so that we can get them out of the cold weather.”–Bernadette Smith

From Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, there were 540 fires involving homeless people (including encampment fires and fires in vacant buildings), according to city data.

Davey Cole, the co-ordinator for Sunshine House’s mobile overdose prevention site, said drug toxicity is high across the city right now. The team sent out an alert earlier this month after 14 drug poisonings in the Main Street and Logan Avenue area were reported in just 24 hours.

Cole said drug toxicity compounds other issues that homeless people may face, including difficulties accessing medical care or warmth in cold conditions.

“In terms of situations like that, where someone experiences a death in an unhoused situation, we know that the drugs are toxic in our city, so that’s obviously going to be a factor that we’re going to think of,” Cole said.

“But a big one is that (these people don’t) have any resources to keep themselves healthy in any way right there, right now.”

Across the street from where the tent stood Tuesday afternoon, Grace Point Church holds a drop-in for people to warm up and grab a cup of coffee. It is open three days a week.

— with files from Danielle Da Silva and Tyler Searle

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca