On Friday morning, Kingston Police cruisers sat parked outside the city’s Integrated Care Hub (ICH) and a tall fence that was erected overnight surrounded the site, lined with tents and other temporary shelters.
It was a very different scene than the previous morning when the area was wrapped in yellow police tape and paramedics stood by as police officers engaged in a roughly six-hour standoff with the suspect in a deadly assault.
Two people were killed and a third remains in hospital with life-threatening injuries after a series of attacks Thursday morning that investigators say unfolded in an encampment near the Montreal Street facility.
Witnesses said the male suspect attacked two men and a woman using what appeared to be a hammer.
Just before 5 p.m., the suspect was taken into custody without further incident, according to police.
In a statement issued Thursday, the ICH said it had been asked to temporarily close while police continue to investigate what happened.
“This closure will be effective immediately and is expected to last a couple of days,” it read.
Mayor calls for centre’s closure
Even before the suspect was arrested, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson issued a statement of his own saying he was “absolutely horrified” by the attacks.
He called for the encampment to be cleared and for both ICH and the supervised injection site it houses to shut down.
“We as a city have been talking about the dangers of this encampment in and around the safe injection site for almost three years,” the mayor wrote.
“I will not stand by and wait until more people die — enough is enough.”
The encampment has long been controversial in Kingston, with officials pushing to have it cleared and even seeking a court order to do so.
A judge ruled the city’s ban on overnight sheltering was unconstitutional. However, he included an exception allowing people who are homeless to erect shelters in parks, but only overnight.
Attempts to enforce that rule were met with protests and blockades in April, and the encampment remained.
Suspect wasn’t ‘a regular,’ says witness
Jay English said he’s lived in the encampment for more than two years and witnessed the attacks on Thursday.
“The guy that did it, he’s not a regular, a regular person that stays here,” he said. “We’re all hurt. Really, really hurt.”
English said he believes clearing the encampment is unnecessary, adding it will only force those who had been staying in there onto city streets and away from the supports they need.
“It’s a bad enough day. We lost two of our best friends, and another one of our friends is the one who did it,” he said.
“Now to lose our homes and have to go somewhere where we’re not going to feel as comfortable as we all do here…. It’s going to take its toll.”
Advocates have also spoken out, sharing both their grief over the attacks and their frustration at the mayor’s comments.
John Done, one of the lawyers who represented encampment residents during the court case, described Paterson’s words as “premature and misguided.”
Done noted police are continuing to investigate, adding at this point there’s no indication the ICH or supervised injection site played a role in what happened.
“Without the safe injection site, the Integrated Care Hub and the homeless encampment, what would we have left?” Done wrote in a statement.
“A higher frequency of overdoses, fewer shelter beds, and more homelessness. Hardly the conditions to reduce
crime and violence.”
More to come.
