Police identify first homicide victim of 2019 after Scarborough stabbing
Posted January 6, 2019 7:55 am.
Last Updated January 8, 2019 12:58 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Police say a stabbing in Scarborough overnight is now the city’s first homicide of 2019.
Police responded to a call for a stabbing at a Toronto Community Housing Corp. (TCHC) building at 40 Gordonridge Place near Danforth Road and Midland Avenue around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
A 36-year-old man was located in an apartment on the 12th floor with a life-threatening stab wound to the upper body and vital signs absent. Emergency services tried to save the man’s life but was pronounced dead at the scene.
The victim has been identified as Ian Dyer. He did not live in the building, but police say he had friends who were residents and he had been staying with them for the past few days.
Det. Paul Worden said Dyer was known to police but was not involved in any criminal activity at the time of his death.
“He was in the apartment with friends and everything was fine according to the people who were last with him,” said Worden.
Worden added that Dyer was alone in the apartment when the suspect entered. There were no signs of forced entry into the apartment and no weapon has been recovered at this time.
Police say TCHC was on the scene and assisted in providing surveillance video quickly. Based on the footage, police are asking anyone who was in the building or on the 12th floor between 11:30 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. to contact them with any information they might have. Police are still reviewing the footage and trying to piece together the last days and hours of Dyer’s life.
“Based on the condition of the apartment, it would seem unlikely to me that somebody might not have heard something. There would have been noise coming from that apartment,” said Worden.
There was also a large dog in the apartment that got out and was found on another floor.
“We would like to know if anyone saw a large German Shepherd wandering the halls at that time. Maybe they could help us figure how it got down to the other floor — that might be some indication of where people went after this occurred,” he said.
Police have spoken to the owner of the apartment and determined the owner is not a suspect. It is unclear if one or multiple suspects are involved and whether the victim and suspect knew each other, but police say they are not ruling that out. No further suspect information is available at this time.
Worden said police are investigating several factors, with drugs being the primary factor in this case.
“The information were getting is that the building and that particular floor had heavy drug activity,” he said.
Another man was stabbed to death in the same building in April of last year and was the city’s 17th homicide of 2018.
Worden said the building has a troubled past and violence is not uncommon.
“Everything starts with the drug dealings. The type of people who show up to deal in drugs — that leads to robberies and other violence,” said Worden.
He added the risk level to other residents is not any higher than it would normally be in the building, but they are concerned and frightened.
“There’s a lot of good people in the building and they’re being taken advantage of. They feel like they can’t live full lives because they’re limited and scared to move around the building freely.”
In response to the homicide, TCHC have released a statement saying they have identified Gordonridge complex as a priority, based on the number of violent and mental-health related incidents.
They added that following the homicide in April 2018, an audit of the video surveillance systems were conducted and five additional security cameras were installed in the underground garage at 10 Gordonridge Place.
A post mortem will be conducted later on Sunday or early Monday.
