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Fatal stabbing outside movie theatre is city's ninth murder of the year

THUNDER BAY -- A 20-year-old man is the ninth murder victim this year after he was stabbed to death outside a city movie theatre Friday night.
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Police are investigating a fatal stabbing that occurred Friday night outside the Silvercity movie theatres. (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- A 20-year-old man is the ninth murder victim this year after he was stabbed to death outside a city movie theatre Friday night.

Thunder Bay Police Service officers responded after numerous emergency 911 calls were placed just before 10:30 p.m. about a altercation between the two men outside SilverCity.

Those officers found the man in medical distress and immediately began attempting life saving procedures. He was transported to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre where he died.

Police located a man matching the description of the suspect a short distance from the theatre, where he was arrested and found with a weapon.

The suspect, 19-year-old Shane Patrick Ashpanaquestcum of Summer Beaver First Nation, has been charged with second degree murder. He made a brief court appearance Saturday morning and was remanded into custody at the Thunder Bay District Jail.

The victim, who police are not identifying, is a student attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School from Sachigo Lake.  The Northern Nishnawbe Educaton Council's website identified him as Daniel Randall Levac.

Police say the two were not known to each other and that alcohol was a factor.

Detectives with the Criminal Investigations Unit have interviewed multiple witnesses who were at the theatre at the time of the incident.

The entrance to the theatres was cordoned off by crime scene tape Friday night. A backpack and what appeared to be a pool of blood was visble at the top of the stairs that lead into the building. The theatre remains closed for business on Saturday.

CKPR Radio's Erin McNutt reported that movies were stopped in progress and people were asked to leave the theatres.

Ashpanaquestcum is scheduled to make his next court appearance on Oct. 14.

Anyone who witnessed the incident and has not already spoken with detectives are asked to contact city police.




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