Friday, June 29, 2007

Knife found near site where taxi abandoned

From the Kingston Whig-Standard website

Rob Tripp
Friday, June 29, 2007

Local News
- Three days after the killing of a Kingston cab driver, a knife was found in the grass surrounding the apartment complex where the man's taxi was abandoned, the Whig-Standard has learned.

Police have been tight-lipped about their investigation and have not disclosed the finding, made on the evening of Wednesday, June 20.

The senior official in charge of the investigation, Det. Sgt. Bill Kennedy, could not be reached yesterday.

Amey's cab driver David Krick, 50, was left bleeding on a sidewalk on Durham Street early Sunday morning, June 17, after picking up a male passenger on Wright Crescent, near the YMCA.

Krick was stabbed in the chest several times. He was pronounced dead at hospital.

His attacker took his taxi on a circuitous, seven-minute ride through suburban neighbourhoods before abandoning the car in the parking lot of the An Clachan apartment complex on MacPherson Avenue, just off Van Order Drive.

The killer fled on foot and eluded police, who arrived soon after he parked, investigators have said.

The maze-like complex of three-storey apartment buildings houses mostly married, international students attending Queen's University. Several hundred students live there.

Attiya Alatery, a Libyan student who is completing a PhD at Queen's, said he did not see the knife, but saw police and building staff sealing off an area on the northeast side of the building.

"They brought out the yellow [tape]," Alatery said in an interview yesterday.

A fellow tenant explained to him that children found the object.

"He told me his son and other kids, they were playing in the area and they found the knife," said Alatery, who lives in the complex with his wife and two young children.

The building superintendent was notified and police were called. The knife was apparently covered with a pail or bucket to protect it from contamination, although a thunderstorm had soaked the city a day earlier.

The knife was found roughly 100 metres from the spot where Krick's taxi was abandoned and in an area not more than 10 or 15 metres from one of the main entrances to the apartment complex.

It was not hidden in bushes or long grass. The grassy area where it was found is part of a greenbelt that rings the apartments.

Police have said that the suspect was last seen running south through the complex, after abandoning Krick's taxi in the northeast corner of the parking lot that abuts MacPherson Avenue.

That path would have taken the suspect toward the area where the knife was found.

The superintendent of the complex declined to be interviewed.

It's unclear why police have refused to disclose the discovery of the knife, since the finding is now well known among tenants of the apartments.

In murder probes, police usually withhold some information from the public that they believe is known only to the perpetrator, that can be used later to verify an account.

Alatery said all of the tenants received a letter from Queen's assuring them that the suspect is not believed to be a tenant of the buildings.

"[There's] nothing to be scared of," Alatery said they have been told.

The killing of Krick, 50, is believed to be the first slaying of a Kingston cab driver.

Police have said that they believe the killing was random, since the caller who asked for an Amey's taxi .did not request Krick.

Krick activated a silent alarm button at 6:45 a.m., nine minutes after he picked up the passenger on Wright Crescent.

The precise movements of his car were tracked by the Amey's dispatcher because all of the company's cars are equipped with global positioning units, a form of satellite tracking technology.

Police have released a general description of the suspect as a white male, aged 20 to 30, between five foot 10 and six foot two inches tall with a slim to medium build and short hair.

rtripp@thewhig.com

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