Report says ‘hit list,’ shotgun found; Teen charged with first-degree murder
BY STAN JOSEY AND JOSEPH HALL, The Toronto Star
COBOURG, Ontario, Canada -— Slain police Constable Chris Garrett was being hailed as a hero in his hometown last night.
Evidence found in the home of the suspect in the veteran officer’s slaying — including explosive devices — has led investigators to believe that other crimes may have been planned.
“In light of what was going on (Sunday night) ... when this all comes out, Chris (Garrett) will be seen as a hero,” said Cobourg police Chief Garry Clement.
Clement was referring to a search Sunday at the home of the accused, 18-year-old Troy Davey, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the Saturday stabbing.
The police chief said Garrett’s dying actions might have prevented a worse tragedy. The constable’s sacrifice saved a lot of lives, Clement said.
Garrett was stabbed to death early Saturday after he responded to a 911 call to a decommissioned hospital in this lakeside town of 18,000 about an hour east of Toronto.
For the past six weeks, Davey had been a student at the Centre for Individual Learning, an alternative high school, after transferring from the larger St. Mary’s Secondary School.
OPP officials wouldn’t comment on reports that Garrett might have been the first entry on a “hit list” found at the homicide scene.
“We are conducting a thorough investigation and we will not respond to every single rumour or statement in the media,” said OPP spokesperson Sergeant Terry Blace.
The Port Hope Evening Guide reported yesterday that a knapsack containing a “hit list,” ammunition and a shotgun had been recovered from the murder scene.
The OPP also released the results of a post-mortem examination of the officer, showing he died of “sharp edge injury to the neck.” OPP officials also said they have recovered a hunting knife they believe was used in the crime.
Cobourg was further shaken Sunday evening when officers conducting a search warrant at the suspect’s home discovered several explosive devices in the Chapel St. residence.
An entire town block was evacuated as bomb disposal experts from Durham Region removed and dismantled at least four of what police are now calling “booby traps” inside the house.
Blace told the Star the devices — pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails — were designed to cause personal injury to individuals and not to destroy the house or the surrounding community.
“They posed a serious danger to our officers who found them while executing a search warrant at the home of the suspect,” he said.
Several thousand police officers from across North America are expected to attend a public funeral for Garrett in Cobourg. The service will be held at the Lions Community Centre on Elgin St. at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Cobourg residents continued to express grief over the slaying yesterday, as well as shock over the subsequent revelations, which percolated through town.
Barbara Sokay, 77, knelt down just after noon to pray through her tears at a makeshift shrine laid out by a tree near the cordoned-off scene of the officer’s slaying.
“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy ... it’s so terrible, so awful,” said Sokay, the mother of Cobourg police Sergeant Stan Sokay, who worked with Garrett for more than a dozen years.
“I was never afraid for my son here. Never. But now, oh I just don’t know.”
Others said the death has stolen some of the innocence away from this pretty tourist town on the edge of Lake Ontario.
But most people also stressed that the incident was a “one off” aberration that did not reflect an existing or incipient problem among area young people.
“It’s a shock to us, as it would be to people in any town this size,” says Vicki Roocroft, owner of Odd Balls Billiards, a poolroom and bar on downtown King St.
“But it’s such a shock in a lot of ways because there was nothing that would have lead anyone to think this could happen here.”
The OPP have said Garrett was one of three officers who responded early Saturday to a 911 call concerning a robbery at the former site of the Northumberland Health Care Centre on Chapel St.
After they arrived, two of the officers left on foot searching for an alleged robbery suspect, while Garrett remained to interview the complainant. Police have said the complainant was not known to police and that Garrett would have had no reason to be concerned for his safety to interview him on his own. He also was the local police service’s expert in disarming suspects.
A short while later, local residents in the area made frantic 911 calls after they heard up to nine shots coming from the old hospital building.
When more officers responded to these calls they found Garrett mortally wounded outside his cruiser, his empty service weapon nearby.
Around 6 a.m., police arrested a suspect at the new Northumberland Hills Health Care Centre near Burnham St. and Highway 401 where he had gone for treatment of a leg wound.
Suspect Troy Davey, dressed in a green T-shirt and black pants emerged from an OPP cruiser around 11 a.m. yesterday, flanked by two police officers.
His hands were handcuffed behind his back and he hopped on his left leg, keeping his right leg off the ground as he entered the King St. W. courthouse supported by officers.
In the pit-style, main courtroom of the 150-year-old building, Davey looked at the floor and said nothing as lawyer Mark Lapowich of Toronto asked for a one-week adjournment of the bail hearing.
Mr. Justice Rhys Morgan ordered Davey to be held in custody at the Lindsay jail until next Tuesday when he will appear in Cobourg court by way of a video connection.
Davey’s mother and father, who are estranged, were in court. His mother, who was sobbing, tried, but failed to make eye contact with her son as he left the courtroom. Neither parent would comment to the media as they left the building.
Cobourg Mayor Peter Delanty said he was “numbed” by the death of the officer, and the arrest of a suspect, who has deep roots in the town.
“This is still a small town where people greet each other on the street and ask you how you’re doing.
“We are proud of that kind of lifestyle and to have it shattered in this way is traumatic and numbing,” he said.
Delanty said the suspect comes from a family “that goes back several generations in this town.”
The former high school principal said he was further shocked when he met Denise, the wife of the slain officer, on Saturday and recognized her as a former student from his days as principal of Cobourg West Collegiate.
“As you can see this is a very close-knit community.”
At Queen’s Park, MPPs from all three parties paid tribute to slain Garrett by wearing pins reading: “Heroes In Life Not Death.”
Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter, who led the memorial, said the officer was “a role model for young officers in the Cobourg Police Service.
“He served as a mentor and was respected by his fellow officers and the community. Constable Garrett was proud to be a police officer, and the town of Cobourg — indeed the entire province — was proud of him,” said Kwinter.
Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North) said Garrett did an exemplary job for the public.
“At 3 a.m., when most of the people in communities across the province like Cobourg are asleep, men and women like Chris patrol our communities. They patrol them so that we can live in a safe and secure environment,” said Dunlop.
“The police community of Ontario has lost a hero. Police services across North America feel the loss,” he said.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said Garrett’s stabbing “reminds us all of the incredible risk that police officers take.”
--With files from Gabe Gonda and ROBERT BENZIE