BLOODY WEEKEND OF DRUGS, VIOLENCE AND DEATH

An eruption of crack-fuelled violence tore through the city Saturday
leaving one man dead, another critically injured, and a third man in
serious but stable condition. Two men and two women are in custody facing
murder and attempted murder charges stemming from the unrelated attacks.

It has to rank as one of the most violent days in recent memory and
brutally underlines the links that bind the city's drug trade with violent
crime.

Shortly before 11 a.m., two men were discovered shot in the head and left
for dead in a second-floor apartment of a rundown Sherman Avenue six-plex.

The second person on the scene, Germain Landry, 44, wound up comforting one
victim, Craig White, whom he found lying just inside the apartment's open
door.

"He was still moving," Landry said. "I stayed there and kept talking to him.

"I'd seen the guy on the floor with blood and a hole in the side of his head.

"He didn't talk, but his eyes were still moving and his legs were shaking.
I told him not to move because an ambulance was coming."

Firefighters, ambulances and a slew of police squad cars soon filled the
dusty street three-deep.

White was stabilized and then rushed to Hamilton General Hospital where
doctors performed emergency surgery to try to save his life.

Last night he was listed in critical condition.

Inside White's apartment, the body of another man was found, he too had
been shot in the head.

But unlike White, Arthur Roy Middleton, 32, of Golfcrest Road, was beyond
comfort or saving and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Neighbours described some of the slum apartment occupants as transients and
"crackheads."

Even as a team of investigators began interviewing nearly a dozen witnesses
they had spirited away to police headquarters in an attempt to piece
together details of the shooting, mayhem erupted seven blocks away.

At the EconoLodge Motel at Main and Caroline Streets, a bloodied man
staggered onto the street, telling paramedics he'd been stabbed and so had
his buddy. The paramedics, who were responding to a call for a man with
breathing difficulties at the neighbouring seniors' building, entered the
motel lobby and found another man collapsed on the lobby's sofa, suffering
multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

"It was basic mayhem. We didn't know if we had two, three or four people
stabbed," Hamilton-Wentworth police Staff Sergeant Bob Watts said Saturday.

One of the first officers on the scene put out a call on his police radio
frantically asking for "all the ambulances you can get."

The second set of paramedics on the scene were unpacking their gear around
the corner from the motel when one of them was pushed off the sidewalk by a
couple hurrying past. "They shoved him out of the way and walked south on
Caroline," Detective Gary Thompson recalled yesterday afternoon.

"Their clothing was blood-soaked and the paramedic put two and two together
and notified police."

Constable James Howard heard the description on the radio and spotted a
couple about a kilometer away who matched the description.

"When they saw he was watching them, they ran and a brief foot chase
ensued," Thompson said.

Howard cornered the pair in a nearby backyard as they tried to hide
themselves.

Back at the motel police sealed off the building, after finding a 25
centimetre hunting knife in the front parking lot and a trail of blood
leading from the lobby back up to Room 211.

The stabbing victims were the two men who had rented Room 211. Owner Shawn
Petal said he hadn't seen the men often but said one man told him he was
from East York in Toronto. They also told the clerks they were in a band.

"They were quiet. I didn't see them around much but I never had a complaint
from them and no one had complained about them," said Petal.

Thompson snorted when told about the duo's musical explanations.

Noting police had recovered crack cocaine and more than $2,000 in cash from
the room, Thompson said police didn't believe the pair was in town from
Toronto for the purposes of "seeking gainful employment."

Thompson said from what police could piece together the two men were
visited in their room by a man they knew and a women they didn't. When the
older of the two room residents tried to leave the apartment, saying he was
going to get some food, he was stabbed in the back. He escaped from the
room but his friend was not so lucky, suffering near-fatal wounds before he
too was able to escape from the room, stumble down the stairs and collapse
in the lobby.

"If the paramedics hadn't been there right then, he wouldn't have made it,"
Thompson said.

Police are not releasing the identities of the stabbing victims at this time.

Back on Sherman Avenue, police set up a command van and prepared a search
warrant to enter the apartment. As of last night, the scene was still
sealed off by police tape.

Early yesterday morning, detectives, backed by members of the force's
tactical unit, arrested a man and a woman at a bar at Concession Street and
Upper Sherman Avenue.

Detective Peter Abi-Rashed of the major crime unit wouldn't discuss motive
as the case is now before the courts. Abi-Rashed also declined to say what
kind of gun was used in the shooting, how many shots were fired or if
investigators know precisely when the shooting occurred.

Abi-Rashed wouldn't say directly what lead police to the arrested couple,
but did say that witnesses "assisted us in putting the pieces together."

A gun believed connected to the crime was recovered by police following the
search of a downtown apartment yesterday afternoon.

Neighbours said there was a fight Friday night between White and a woman
often seen in his company. The fight was one of several they had had over
the last few months since White moved into the apartment house to replace a
vacationing superintendent.

"I stuck my head out to see who it was and it was them (fighting) so I just
shut my window," said a 38-year-old neighbour, who did not want to be
identified. "They were in one wing dinger. She was screaming at him.
Slapping him. I couldn't make head or tail of it."

The owner of a nearby lunch counter said that after the fight he saw the
woman sitting on a curb holding her head as though she had been injured.

"It was not bad though," said Jay, who asked that his full name not be
used. "She climbed in the ambulance by herself, without their help."

Edward Eli Frances (Stones), 46, of Cannon Street East, and Ammy Marie
Lewis, 21, of no fixed address, have been charged with first-degree murder
and attempted murder in the Sherman Avenue shootings. They have been
remanded in custody and will appear in court April 4.

James McGaughey, 34 of Hamilton, and Dana Bellerose, 34 of Eerie Avenue
face charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault in connection with
the Econolodge stabbings. They too have been remanded in custody for a
court appearance later this week.