Assault victim dies in hospital
The suspect in Thunder Bay’s third homicide of 2012 was wanted on a previous charge of assault-with-a-weapon, police said Friday.
Jeffrey Charles Tomagatick, 29, of Thunder Bay is due back in court on Thursday. He’s been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Murray Keesic Jr., 50.
Keesic died in hospital early Friday morning. The exact cause has not been released, but he was found by police at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, after he had been assaulted and robbed behind a building in the 200 block of N. Syndicate Avenue.
Acting Det-Inspt. Don Lewis said Keesic was unconscious when police found him.
There is “no information of any weapons being used,” Lewis said at Thunder Bay police headquarters on Friday.
Tomagatick was identified by witnesses — a neighbour called police about the North Syndicate Avenue incident — and arrested without incident a few hours after Keesic was found.
He was wanted on a number of outstanding warrants, police said.
Those include one warrant for assault with a weapon, one for breaking and entering, one for theft under $5,000, and two breaches of court orders.
Details of those warrants weren’t available Friday.
Neither Tomagatick nor Keesic lived at the North Syndicate Avenue building where the incident took place, nor were they visiting any occupants of the building, Lewis said. The two were acquaintances, but why they were at the location was unclear.
The robbery, though, “seemed to be a spontaneous act on the part of the accused,” Lewis said, adding that a “quantity” of money was taken from Keesic.
Tomagatick appeared in court on Friday morning, and was remanded in custody until Thursday.
Keesic’s death is being treated by police as Thunder Bay’s third homicide of 2012.
The first occurred in June, when 35-year-old Serman Quisses of Fort Hope died as a result of injuries sustained during an altercation at the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre. Adam Mark Capay of Cat Lake was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Quisses.
Police are also investigating the recent death of Adam Yellowhead, 65, as a homicide.
Yellowhead’s body was found on Aug. 29 in a wooded area at the end of Field Street in the Intercity area. Police have charged Joseph Wesley, 33, of Thunder Bay with second-degree murder in connection with Yellowhead’s death.