Tenant’s friend stabbed to death while visiting circular condo

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/05/2025 (391 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 43-year-old father is dead after being stabbed in South Point Douglas, with residents and a landlord telling the Free Press the homicide happened at a flying saucer-shaped condominium building.

Winnipeg police identified the victim as Kerry Eastman, who lived in the city and was originally from Sandy Bay First Nation in central Manitoba.

Police did not reveal the exact location of the homicide, but said in a news release that officers were sent to the 500 block of Waterfront Drive at about 1:45 a.m. Sunday.

Officers applied chest seals while providing emergency medical care to Eastman, who police say later died after being taken to hospital by paramedics.

Winnipeg has recorded 13 homicides this year, according to Free Press data. All but one were identified by police as being members of First Nations in Manitoba or Saskatchewan.

A small police presence remained at 62M, a circular condo building that is elevated by 10-metre concrete stilts next to Disraeli Freeway, on Monday afternoon. The complex is located at 62 MacDonald Ave., just west of Waterfront Drive.

While he did not know the full circumstances, Mark Penner, the building’s developer and the owner of some of its 41 suites, said the homicide happened inside a rented unit.

Penner said the victim, who did not live in the building, was a friend of one of his tenants, who was not present when the incident happened.

“The (tenant) is very distraught about it. It’s a very unfortunate incident that happened in the building,” he said. “My heart goes out to Kerry and his family.

Family members’ Facebook posts identified Eastman as a father. Some of his relatives declined to comment when contacted by the Free Press.

Neighbourhood resident Dominick Roulette said he was awakened by “high-pitched screaming” at about 1:20 a.m. Sunday. He didn’t know if the person’s screams were connected to the homicide.

When he decided to take his dog for a walk about an hour later, he saw police outside 62M. Roulette said he lived in 62M until he moved out about six months ago.

“It’s too rowdy,” he said of the complex.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s forensic identification arrived at the scene later Sunday.

A resident of 62M said police continued to guard a first-floor suite Monday.

“There’s a cop standing outside the door,” the woman, who declined to give her name, said outside the complex. “I didn’t know what it was for. I try to keep low-key here, to myself.”

She wasn’t home when the stabbing happened. She said the homicide made her feel “pretty uneasy.”

Police had not announced any arrests as of Monday. People with information were asked to call the homicide unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477 (TIPS).

The WPS did not reveal what is suspected to have led up to or factored into the homicide, nor the life circumstances of anyone who was involved or present.

Penner said the owners of 62M’s suites, which are all rental units, are facing an “uphill battle” to create a safe building for tenants and visitors, while some people in the surrounding area “are fighting their own battle.”

He said condo owners do their best to screen potential tenants before signing leases, and to prevent problems such as drug trafficking or other types of crime inside the complex.

Private security guards were hired to walk through the hallways and stairwell multiple times per day, he said.

“We’re concentrating so hard on creating a community for our tenants so that they feel safe,” Penner said.

62M is located in an area where issues such as poverty, drug addiction, homelessness and violent crime are well-documented. The complex is located near a building that could end up being home to Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site.

When the Free Press visited 62M on Monday, a person was curled up in a sleeping bag on the ground, next to an outside wall. A few people occupied tents at a small encampment nearby. A pedestrian looked through the contents of the complex’s dumpster before moving on.

The WPS, meanwhile, is planning to release crime data for 2024 this week. Ahead of the release, a social media post said total reports of crime dropped for the second year in a row thanks to larger decreases in property and violent crime.

Reports of violent crime dropped for the first time in four years, while property crimes are now below what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, police said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca