Ottawa man surrenders in Iqaluit man’s homicide

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT – An man in Ottawa turned himself into Ottawa-Carleton police Wednesday, following the death by homicide of former Iqaluit resident Pootoogook Kilabuk.

Ottawa-Carleton police then arrested Robert Christie Mitchell, of no fixed address.

Ottawa-Carleton police media relations officer said Thursday that Mitchell has been charged with one count of second degree murder. Mitchell is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 9 for a show cause hearing.

Mitchell will remain in police custody until his show cause hearing.

On Wednesday, police had issued an arrest warrant for Mitchell after Pootoogook Kilabuk had been found dead early Tuesday morning following an altercation at an apartment on Bradley St. in Vanier that he shared with his mother, Martha Kilabuk.

Ottawa-Carleton police were called to the apartment at about 1:15 p.m. They found Kilabuk with no vital signs, said Stephane Bujold, a media relations officer with Ottawa-Carleton police.

Kilabuk, 22, was pronounced dead shortly afterwards at the Montfort Hospital in Vanier. Police say he was killed by a blow to the throat by a blunt object. The object still has not been identified.

Martha Kilabuk, who lives in the same apartment, was in the immediate area when her son was attacked, Bujold said.

Police questioned the victim’s mother and another witness before determining that Mitchell is a suspect.

“With interviewing all the witnesses, they sketched together the suspect and then finally identified him,” Bujold said. Mitchell is a family acquaintance, he said.

Charges to be laid Thursday

At of Nunatsiaq News press-time this Wednesday, police were questioning Mitchell and expected to lay charges the next day [Thursday].

The death surprised neighbour Rhoda Innuksuk. Innuksuk said she is not a close friend of the Kilabuk family, but that she was “shocked” when she heard the news and rushed over to the apartment.

She said Pootoogook could often be seen carving outside.

“He was going to start college soon, now he won’t,” Inuksuk said.

“He was a good kid”

The Kilabuks lived in the Inuit Non-Profit Housing Corp.-owned apartment building for more than two years.

“He was a good kid. I spoke to him many times, he was always quiet, very polite and never belligerent, at least to me,” said Michael Komendat, executive director of INPHC.

Komendat said the Martha Kilabuk never caused any major problems and added that the INPHC will move Martha to a different unit if she prefers.

Angry at Ottawa Citizen

Komendat was disturbed by an Ottawa Citizen report that suggested the INPHC building was “notorious for violent drunken confrontations.”

The Vanier neighbourhood does have a lot of crime, Komendat said. But the INPHC apartment building is well maintained and is not riddled with violence.

“That building is certainly not notorious. Yeah we have a couple of bad tenants. Every building in Ottawa is going to have a couple of bad tenants,” he said.

“The tone of the article paints the whole building, and all the tenants in it with the same brush,” he said. Komendat also argued the article links the whole Inuit community to one crime.

Komendat says the coverage can’t help the INPHC’s attempts to hold onto its federal funding and he’s asked the Citizen to apologize to Ottawa’s Inuit community.

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