nice... the tallented drawing dude from the group of friends i hung out with in highschool was murderd friday
'Why is it so bad around here?'
Stabbing victim was gifted artist: parents
By: Lindsey Wiebe and Arielle Godbout
12/07/2009 1:00 AM |
Comments: 14
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JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA The mother and father of murder victim Joseph Alexander Hall cry on their front steps as they recall Hall coming home Friday night bleeding from stab wounds.
The night before, she said, her son lay dying in her arms.
On Saturday evening the mother of Joseph Alexander Hall sat weeping on the stoop of her Aberdeen Avenue home, the nearby sidewalk wet from where she and family members had washed away the 24-year-old's blood.
Police responded to their home in the 300 block of Aberdeen at about 8:35 p.m. Friday night to find Hall suffering from stab wounds to his upper body. He was rushed to hospital but died as a result of critical injuries, police said. He is the city's 15th homicide victim this year.
"He staggered into my arms and that's where he died," Hall's mother said through tears, clutching a photo of Hall.
"He was a good boy. He never did drugs and he never drank," said the victim's father.
Police said the victim was stabbed near Aikins Street and Alfred Avenue, and managed to make his way back to his house, looking for help.
Hall's parents declined to give their names, but said their son was a gifted artist and a graduate of Tec Voc High School's graphic arts program. He had two siblings and had been working in the construction industry.
"All he wanted to do was go to university and get educated," said a woman who identified herself as Hall's aunt. "He was really artistic."
Family members said Hall had gone to a neighbouring home to borrow a computer disk to help him update his resume Friday before the stabbing took place.
An emotional neighbour said she had placed flowers at the corner of Aikins and Alfred, where blood covered the sidewalk Saturday morning but had been washed away by evening. Hers were among five bouquets in the grass the intersection Saturday evening, when shreds of police tape were still caught in a wire fence.
The woman, who identified herself as Anne, said she sat with Hall's mother earlier that day, offering consolation. Anne said she had lost two sons of her own and understood her neighbour's grief.
"That's all I've done today, cry and cry," she said.
Another neighbour looked distraught Saturday morning as she sat on her front porch with her mother and her two children, a four-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son.
All four heard sirens shortly before 9 p.m. Friday night, and they peeked out the window.
"We saw the man being brought out on the stretcher and that's when I said, 'that's enough,' and I closed the curtain," the mother said.
"He was covered in blood," added the neighbour, who did not want to be named.
She said the man had moved into the house recently.
The neighbour's mother, who had met the man and his girlfriend once, said they seemed like a nice couple and the man had been very polite.
"You couldn't imagine something like this happening to them," the mother said. "This is crazy, why is it so bad around here?" she asked, hugging her granddaughter close to her.
lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca arielle.godbout@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 12, 2009 A3
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