Hamilton man, 33, dies after fight at encampment near City Hall: police | CBC News

A 33-year-old Hamilton man has died after a fight near City Hall in the early hours of Wednesday, police said. 

The man was found with life-threatening injuries to the upper body after the altercation at a nearby encampment.

“The victim ran away and collapsed in front of the YWCA on Jackson Street,” said Det. Sgt. Jason Cattle, of the Hamilton Police Service, at an afternoon press conference outside the force’s Central Station.

Cattle said the incident happened at about 3 a.m. and that he did not know if the man lived at the encampment. “Police and ambulance tried to render first aid. He died in the hospital.”

The man is from Hamilton but had no fixed address, he added. 

Cattle would not say how the man was killed, noting the cause of death had not been confirmed by an autopsy. He said no shell casings were found on the ground. 

Hamilton Paramedic Service superintendent Dave Thompson told CBC Hamilton earlier in the day that “resuscitative measures [were] ongoing” in the ambulance, but declined to share more details on the nature of the man’s injuries due to the police investigation.

Police cordoned off a large area Wednesday spanning from the YWCA Hamilton building at Jackson and MacNab streets, past the Whitehern historic house, to the multi-tent encampment on the southeast corner of the City Hall parking lot. 

Numerous investigators could be seen gathering evidence at the scene, as several police cruisers, paramedic vehicles and forensics unit vans were parked in the City Hall parking lot. 

At the taped-off intersection near the YWCA’s childcare-centre entrance, an empty, red first-aid kit and a black baseball cap could be seen lying on the street near some pieces of clothing and garbage.

Clients of Carole Anne’s Place, a drop-in centre for women and non-binary people run by the YWCA, sat on the Jackson Street curb watching the investigation. 

Police block off area, review video footage

With the encampment behind the police line, many of its residents milled about the neighbourhood, waiting to be given allowed access to their tents and belongings.

Dallas Morris, 29, said he keeps his possessions in the parking lot “tent city” but sleeps in different places at night. He said encampment residents were “pushed… out within five minutes” when police arrived to investigate.

“We are not allowed to get access to our things right now… Bikes, clothes, tents, things that you need personally every day,” he told CBC Hamilton, estimating about 30 people live or have belongings there. 

“I think it’s outrageous because we are homeless and we’re already dealing with enough,” he said.  “These people here… it’s hard on them.”

Det. Sgt. Cattle says investigators are “cognisant of the fact that people’s belongings are there,” but wasn’t able to say Wednesday afternoon how long it would be until they could access their things.

“It will take time,” he said, noting police were not searching through the tents themselves, but were looking at video footage of the encampment taken from nearby buildings.

“We have a victim who has been killed. We have a duty to be very thorough,” he said.

Cattle said a couple witnesses gave statements to police but he was hopeful more would come forward. “We do know that people were up at that time and saw things,” he said.