Man facing murder charges for attacks near Kingston encampment dies in custody
The man facing murder charges for a series of violent attacks near a Kingston, Ont., encampment that left two people dead and a third critically injured has died in custody, according to the Ministry of the Solicitor General.
Andre Wareham was being held at the Central East Correctional Centre while awaiting trial. He died in hospital on April 22, ministry spokesperson Brent Ross confirmed in an email to CBC.
Ross did not share any further details, including a suspected cause of death, citing ongoing investigations.
The Ontario coroner's office said that because Wareham's death occurred while he was incarcerated, a standard death investigation is taking place.
"If the manner of death is non-natural, a mandatory inquest will be held," spokesperson Stephanie Rea added in an email.
Wareham's death was first reported by local news outlet Kingstonist.
Reached by CBC, his family declined to comment.
According to a GoFundMe campaign created in early May and shared by some of his loved ones on social media, Wareham was a father to three children and is also survived by his mother and brother.
"Andre passed away under tragic and unresolved circumstances while incarcerated," it reads in part, asking for help covering the cost of a private service and to support his children following his cremation.
2 men killed, 1 woman seriously injured
Wareham was facing two first-degree murder charges and one charge of attempted murder in connection with the deadly attacks on Sept. 12, 2024. Witnesses said the attacks involved a hammer.
He was arrested following a lengthy standoff with police.
It took place near an encampment that had grown around the Integrated Care Hub (ICH) on Montreal Street, which houses the city's only supervised consumption site and offers other services including showers and meals.
Police identified Taylor Wilkinson, 38, and John Hood, 41, as the two men killed in the attacks. Friends described them as generous, caring and the kind of people who were always looking out for others.
A woman who was not named by officials also suffered life-threatening injuries.
In a statement issued while the standoff was still going on, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson called for the encampment to be cleared and the injection site shut down until a "better way" to support vulnerable residents could be found.
Investigators later said Wareham lived near the hub and was familiar to those living in Belle Park, but was not part of the encampment.
Court documents from Thunder Bay show his arrest last September wasn't the first time he had been accused in a homicide: Wareham was charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a neighbour in 2009.
He was ultimately found not guilty in that case, CBC reported in 2012.
In the wake of the violence in Kingston, the ICH and all of its services were temporarily shuttered and the area around it fenced off as tents and other makeshift shelters were hauled down and removed.
Just over a month later, the injection site reopened and other services slowly resumed.
Today the fencing remains, but tents have sprung up in the wooded parts of Belle Park beyond the barriers and people continue to live rough there.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Toronto man had to fight GoFundMe to get paid after organizer gambled away funds for his brother's funeral
In the aftermath of his younger brother's sudden death last year, Allan Oliver says he was surprised when a family friend set up a GoFundMe to help pay for the funeral. "My first thought was like, 'Wow, I can't believe someone would do this for our family,' " Oliver told CBC News. His brother, Aidan, a well-known figure in their community of Shelburne, Ont., was just 23 years old when he died after a medical episode on Oct. 30. Oliver watched as donations from the community poured in — eventually, more than $15,000 was raised. He says his family then planned a larger funeral to make sure everyone could pay their respects. "Through this fundraiser, there were hundreds of people helping us through it," he said. "And that was just really comforting." Those feelings of comfort turned to anxiety in the months that followed, when he encountered repeated challenges trying to obtain the remaining balance of donations from the organizer. On Nov. 11, the day of his brother's funeral, the organizer gave the family $7,000 of the $15,200 raised. But the remaining $8,200 had not been paid to him, and he had an outstanding bill from the funeral home to worry about. "I was giving the organizer the benefit of the doubt," Oliver told CBC News. His feelings of anxiety turned out to be warranted — months later, the organizer admitted to him in a text message that she had withdrawn the remaining money and gambled it way. After public pressure from community members, Oliver says a relative of the organizer returned the funds to him this week — nearly seven months after his brother's funeral. CBC News is not naming the organizer as the funds have since been repaid. Oliver is still pushing for policy changes at GoFundMe, and says the company needs to do more to ensure the intended beneficiaries receive the money that is raised for them. A spokesperson for GoFundMe defended its current policies in a statement, saying misuse of funds is "rare." In the statement, GoFundMe also said it acted quickly to investigate Oliver's case and noted that it does have a Beneficiary Guarantee, which aims to ensure money gets to the intended recipients. In January, Oliver reached out to the organizer via text to ask about the remaining funds so he could pay the rest of the funeral home bill. Texts reviewed by CBC News show the organizer responded and said she had "lots of things going on," but that she'd call him. Oliver says that call never happened, and the organizer didn't respond to multiple messages he sent after that. At the end of February, he asked the organizer if he could take over the GoFundMe account, and she responded that she would reach out to GoFundMe to try to arrange that. WATCH | Toronto man pushes for GoFundMe changes to ensure people get funds: In March, after receiving no further texts from the organizer, Oliver reached out to the fundraising platform through an online portal. In an emailed response reviewed by CBC News, GoFundMe told him they couldn't share information without permission from the organizer — who was CC'd on the note — and that they couldn't move forward in helping him. Oliver again attempted to contact the organizer via text, but she didn't respond to the e-mail chain from GoFundMe. In May, he says the funeral home told him interest would start accruing on his account at the end of the month if the remaining balance wasn't paid. "It was stressful, it was frustrating," he said. "It's tough to really move on if you have this bill over your head that you have to pay." Then, on May 30, Oliver received an email from GoFundMe stating that they'd been told his family "may not have received the funds raised." The email encouraged him to submit a claim with GoFundMe, which he did, also submitting proof that he was the intended beneficiary. After that, he says GoFundMe confirmed that the organizer had started withdrawing money from the funds raised on Nov. 6, and by Nov. 13 — just two days after his brother's funeral — the entire balance had been withdrawn. "My heart was in my stomach," said Oliver. "It confirmed everything that I was most fearful of." Oliver confronted the organizer with this information via text. In a subsequent message, she apologized and admitted she had "a very bad gambling problem." She said she wanted to pay him back but could only do so in bi-weekly instalments of $500. In a June 2 email, after Oliver made GoFundMe aware of the organizer's admission, a company representative told him that its policy requires people to first try to remedy the situation directly with the organizer. They told him that in his case, since the organizer had offered to create a payment plan to recover the funds, he should speak with her before the company took any further steps. They also told him that if the organizer didn't comply with the payment plan, he could then file a claim under their Beneficiary Guarantee. Oliver questions why the company would make him responsible for recovering the funds — especially from someone who'd already demonstrated that she wasn't trustworthy. "I just think that's unacceptable because they have all the proof that the organizer has misused the funds," he said. "And the onus shouldn't be on myself to trust the organizer for a payment plan." Oliver says his focus now is on the actions taken by the fundraising platform itself. "I think GoFundMe has handled this poorly, to be honest," he said. He wants to know why the company didn't flag an irregularity when he reached out to them in March about dispersing the remainder of the funds, especially if they knew the money had been withdrawn months early. "That should have flagged something within their internal investigation or fraud team to say, 'Hey, this guy is the intended beneficiary and he's saying that he hasn't received the money,' " said Oliver. There have been other high-profile instances of money from GoFundMe campaigns being misused. After the 2018 Humboldt Broncos tragedy, a man was sentenced to jail in part for setting up a GoFundMe for the victims, then depositing the funds into his own bank account and spending the money. The challenge, according to one legal expert, is that it can be difficult to hold companies like GoFundMe liable when donations are misused because it would have to be proven that the company was aware the funds were going to be misappropriated before they were released. "If you knew, or you should have known, that the funds were not being used for the intended purpose, then you would have liability," said Tanya Walker, a Toronto-based lawyer who has handled many fraud cases. To try to prevent misuse of funds, Walker says GoFundMe could consider alternative measures — such as ensuring the funds are deposited directly into the account of the intended beneficiary, or introducing a third-party guarantor in instances where the organizer is raising funds for another person. In Oliver's case, a GoFundMe spokesperson told CBC News that the company had "removed the fundraiser, and the organizer's account has been banned from using our platform for any future fundraisers." More broadly, the spokesperson said, "beneficiaries are protected by the GoFundMe Beneficiary Guarantee, which offers protection in the rare case that an Organizer does not deliver funds to the intended recipients of a fundraiser." But Oliver says that's not good enough, and that he doesn't believe he should have been asked to enforce a payment plan before becoming eligible for support from GoFundMe. He says more needs to be done to prevent something like this from happening again. "I think this is a huge gap in their systems and their policies of how to actually ensure money is being sent to the intended recipient," Oliver said.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
GoFundMe surpasses $1M in support of Whitney Decker, in memory of three daughters
People from across the world are showing an outpouring of support for Whitney Decker and her family. On Thursday, her GoFundMe soared past $1 million from more than 21,000 donors. This comes as the world mourns Whitney's three young girls: Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5, were found dead near the Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth. Their father, Travis Decker, is accused of murdering them. 'When one mother cries, we all cry and hold her in our heart. Thank you for holding Whitney in your hearts now,' said Amy Edwards, a close friend of Whitney. Edwards organized the GoFundMe so 'Whitney can take time off, care for herself and cover the final expenses of the girls without taking a financial hit.' Whitney has been on the minds and in the hearts of people across the world. 'Whitney is living every parent's worst nightmare, the hole in her heart is immeasurable there are no words that can capture the weight of this loss. Right now, she is surrounded by friends, family, and neighbors doing everything they can to hold her up,' said Mark Belton, a close friend of Whitney. But from afar, thousands of strangers, fellow mothers, and people in other countries are showing their support for the mother. On GoFundMe and across social media, people are sharing their own stories, their sympathy, their prayers, and their love. Everyone coming together to raise more than $1 million for Whitney in just a few days. In a statement, GoFundMe told KIRO 7: 'This would be the 2nd Washington GoFundMe ever to reach $1M in donations. However, Washingtonians have consistently shown their generosity. Throughout our 15-year history, Washington is the 9th most generous state in the country.' Here are ways you can help Whitney Decker and her family: Donate through her GoFundMe Visit any Cashmere Valley Bank and ask to make a donation: 'In Memory of the Decker Girls' Send gift cards in place of a meal to: Decker Girls PO Box 405, Wenatchee, WA 98807
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Expecting dad shot, killed during a online sale meetup in Norwalk
The Brief An 18-year-old soon-to-be father, Geovanni Chavez, was shot dead in Norwalk while selling clothes from an online forum. Family members and neighbors mourn his loss, describing him as a good kid with a beautiful heart. Investigators have found a baseball bat near the scene, but no arrests have been made, and the teen's phone is missing. LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - A soon-to-be father was shot dead in Norwalk Wednesday afternoon while family members say he was meeting with someone from an online forum. What they're saying "He was actually selling some clothes," said Eduardo Castro. "I'm not sure if it was OfferUp or any other link. What transpired after that, we don't know." Family members identify the victim as 18-year-old Geovanni Chavez. "My son was taken too early," said Roxanne, the teen's mother. "My son was an amazing kid. He had a beautiful heart." A memorial is growing outside the gated apartment complex along Los Alisos Circle where Chavez was shot around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. "I want justice for him," said Amber, a neighbor. "He was too young. He was such a good kid. He was sweet." Investigators discovered a baseball bat near the shooting scene. However, family members tell FOX 11 the teen's phone is missing. They're not sure who would have killed the 18-year-old. He was about to become a father. "He was going to be a dad," said Roxanne. "He was excited. He had everything ready." "We're just devastated, and we'll get our closure for sure," said Castro. What we don't know So far, no arrests have been made in this case. Anyone with information is urged to contact law enforcement. Local perspective "I would ask the community out there to get behind the family," said Marcus, a friend. "Pray for the family. Pray for the other side of this too. Pray for the idiot that thought this was his only option. I just hope God lets us see the lesson in all this." A GoFundMe page has since been launched to help the family cover funeral expenses. Those looking to help can click here.
