NEIGHBOURS BLAME DRUGS

Man Dies After Stabbing at Alleged Crack House

Residents of the Alberta Avenue neighbourhood say a man who died
after being stabbed at a house near 91 Street and 113 Avenue
yesterday was a regular visitor at a well-known crack house.

"That place is always crawling with activity, people parking down the
street and coming in and out all night," said Billie Jean, a woman
who lives across the street and refused to provide her surname.

Police taped off much of her block yesterday as they investigated the
stabbing that took place around 3 p.m.

The victim succumbed to a wound to his abdomen around 10 p.m., said
police spokesman Jeff Wuite.

The man will not be identified until after an autopsy, which is
scheduled for today. Police said he was in his late 30s or early 40s,
and was known to authorities.

"This address is a place he was known to frequent. We don't know if
he was a renter or a tenant or what," Wuite said.

He said homicide detectives have taken the lead on the investigation,
but that the gang unit may be called in at a later date.

Several neighbours stood on their porches watching police buzz in and
out of the rundown home yesterday, but most refused to speak to
media, citing fears of retribution from local thugs.

"There's a lot of drug trade around here now," said an elderly woman
who's lived in the neighbourhood for more than 40 years.

"I'm worried some of these people could break into my home if they
know who I am."

Wuite would not comment on whether police knew the house where the
stabbing took place to be a drug den.

"Everyone knows it is. This whole neighbourhood is going to s--t,"
said another resident, John Paul, who also declined to give his surname.

"People are out at all hours smoking crack and running in and out of
that house. It's been a problem for a while."

Police were conducting door-to-door interviews with residents last
night, and one neighbour said he witnessed a man in a white hoody
fleeing the area shortly after the stabbing occurred.

"I saw just one guy, he was booking it pretty fast down the alley,"
the man said before speaking to police.

Wuite would not comment on a police search for suspects.

A similar incident nearby sent a man in his 20s to hospital in
February after he was stabbed in the stomach at a rooming house near
117 Avenue and 95A Street.