update on wensdays murder
Slain man had left gang for daughter
Last Updated: Friday, October 2, 2009 | 9:41 AM CT Comments15Recommend16
CBC News
Winnipeg police are probing whether this vacant home at 2158 Gallagher Ave. is linked to Catcheway's killing. (CBC)Kenny Catcheway, the man stabbed to death in Winnipeg's Weston neighbourhood this week, was a 34-year-old former gang member who was motivated by his daughter to change his life.
In an interview with CBC News in January, Catcheway said he left the gang life about a year earlier to learn a skill and turn his life around for his eight-year-old daughter, Chastity.
"I really want to work for her and give her a better environment," he said. "Now she's living with her mom, but I take her for weekends and I wanted to give her stuff back that I missed 'cause I wasn't working for four years," he said at the time.
Catcheway was stabbed Wednesday near the intersection of Logan Avenue and Quelch Street in a pool of blood. It had been nearly two years since he walked away from the gang life.
"Nobody bothers me anymore. They know who I am and I'm not going to run or anything, Catcheway said in the January interview. "I live in the North End and I, you know they don't bother me and I don't bother them.
"I don't try to go back to a gang. I don't want to go back. I want to work and I want to provide for my daughter."
Stumbled and collapsed
Witnesses said Catcheway was seen stumbling along the street before collapsing. Paramedics worked frantically on him before taking him to hospital, where he died.
A knife was found by a CBC cameraman and reporter about a half-block from a fatal stabbing. (CBC)A CBC cameraman and reporter found a knife in the area next to a sidewalk on Vine Street. It was in the grass, partially obscured, and coated with what appeared to be blood. They then told police.
On Thursday, CBC News learned Catcheway was an employee of Ogijita Pimatiswin Kinamatwin (OPK), a program that trains ex-street gang members to get jobs in the home renovations sector.
The government-funded anti-gang group was recently cited as a key part of a new provincial strategy against crime.
The news came to light as Winnipeg police shifted their homicide investigation from the Logan and Quelch corner to a home about a block away on Gallagher Street.
'He had a lot of friends there. And we will be spending the day and the weekend processing and telling stories about a very fine man.'—Shaun Loney
The home at 2158 Gallagher, now taped off by police, is owned by the Dakota Ojibway First Nations Housing Authority. The agency said Thursday the home is empty and being renovated by OPK.
News of Catcheway's killing has those who knew him reeling. Shaun Loney, executive director of a program called BUILD — which puts inner city people and ex-gang members to work renovating buildings — has also hired Catcheway in the past.
"We're in shock. This is a man that has made tremendous movement in his life," Loney said. "He certainly had incarceration and so on in his past, but since he was with us he did things like completing a 10-week parenting program."
A pool of blood is visible where Kenny Catcheway collapsed on the street on Wednesday. (CBC)Catcheway had a dream of going to college to get formal training, according to Loney, who described Catcheway as a man who was admired and loved by those around him.
"It's a bit of disbelief, that's for sure. I, and some others, shed some tears last night when we found out," he said.
He said Catcheway quit drinking, went back to school, got his driver's licence and worked hard after leaving the gangs behind.
"He got his own place to live. He quit drinking and cleaned up his eating habits. He became a real family man, so this is certainly something that is completely unexpected for us," said Loney, who last saw Catcheway earlier this week.
"He had a lot of friends there. And we will be spending the day and the weekend processing and telling stories about a very fine man."
A knife was found by a CBC cameraman and reporter about a half-block from a fatal stabbing. (CBC)A man stabbed Wednesday in Winnipeg's Weston neighbourhood has died, police said.
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