deadmonton 2006 - evan james grykuliak
Evan James Grykuliak, 17, was stabbed to death November 19th, 2006.
A 17-year-old male was charged with second-degree murder, assault with a weapon, and two counts of possession of an offensive weapon. He cannot be identified under provision of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The evening had begun as a birthday celebration for two teens named Evan and Gavin.
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By morning it had turned to tragedy for their friends and family.
On November 19th, 2006 police were called out at 1:20 a.m. to a disturbance at the La Perle community league hall at 18611 97A Avenue.
Upon arrival they found a 17-year-old male suffering from several stab wounds.
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Emergency medical services were immediately dispatched but the youth died enroute to hospital, succumbing to his injuries.
About 60 people were in the hall for the birthday celebration. Police were able to talk to numerous witnesses they described as co-operative.
The stabbing occurred outside the hall and a police spokesman said the victim was not known to them.
It was not known if the people involved in the stabbing were invited guests or party-crashers.
The gang unit was initially involved in the investigation but police later said the incident had no connection to gangs.
The Edmonton Journal reported the party was uneventful and around 1 a.m. some people started to file out.
Friends of the victim said they believed he was trying to get some uninvited party crashers to leave when he was stabbed.
Global Television reported that four young men wanted to join the party and that Evan went out of the hall to tell them it was invitation only. It was then that he was stabbed in the stomach, the station reported.
Friends of the deceased were the first to identify him as Evan Grykuliak when speaking to CTV Edmonton.
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Evan was described by friends as loving, unselfish, smart and athletic.
Faza Ariaee and Shelvin Singh spoke of their friend to CTV Edmonton cameras.
"He's probably the nicest guy I ever met. He never ended anything on a bad note. He always looked out others ahead of himself," said Singh.
Shelvin, who was at the party, said Evan spent months planning his seventeenth birthday party.
"This was like his major project. He put a lot of effort into it."
Evan had turned 17 three days earlier on November 16th, and the party was by invitation only.
Ariaee said Evan was an avid soccer player.
"He just did everything for the team. He went through hell to get these jerseys for us – now he can't even use them."
Diana Grykuliak, Evan's mother, told Global Edmonton he was an avid soccer player, music lover and devoted friend.
"He was the nicest person you ever knew. He was just always concerned about everyone being happy."
"He just never was rude," his mother said. "Just respectful. Never said a cross word to us. He had a special way of dealing with people. Just very sincere."
Catherine Grykuliak, Evan's 84-year-old grandmother, told the Journal he came to visit her every other weekend and they would watch music videos together of "young people's music."
"He was out of this world. He was born with a smile. He died with a smile."
The Grade 12 Ross Sheppard student was planning to travel and attend university after graduating. He had talked about becoming a criminal lawyer or heading into business.
Global Television spoke to Garry Grykuliak, Evan's father.
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"I yearn for my – I want my son back."
"He was an amazing kid – that's why I don't understand why somebody would let this happen."
"Why would people come up and stab somebody like that – cheap shots!"
"I will never forgive the person that persons that did it. I hope I never encounter him. I hope the person rots in hell and anybody that had anything to do with it."
"And I can't understand why anybody would take my son's life."
A spokesman for the La Perle Community League said the hall is rented to private groups as long as there's an adult who's at least 25 years old in charge.
The responsibilty of securing a liquor licence is up to those renting the hall and it must be shown to the league before access is granted.
The spokesman said those organising Evan's party would have to have met those conditions and he believed there were adults at the hall throughout the night (see section below).
Garry Grykuliak said he and other adults got to the community hall early to set up his son's birthday event. He then kept an eye on things from a motor home in the parking lot.
Garry said Evan had insisted on walking a drunk girl outside to make sure she wouldn't be alone.
"The doors were closed, the people were coming and the cabs were coming," he told the Edmonton Journal.
"All of a sudden I spotted some kind of a commotion. The next thing you know, I notice an object leaning away from that and buckling over and falling."
"And by the time I got there and cleared the kids, lo and behold, it was my son, Evan. And that devastated me," he said.
Grykuliak said he saw some people running away after the stabbing, but he was too focused on tending to his wounded son.
After a meeting with police detectives, Grykuliak told the Journal he was still unable to comprehend the violence plaguing Edmonton's youth.
"What morals do you have? Where do you come from? Where do you grow up? Where are your parents?" he said.
"My boy was an angel sent from above, but God must have needed him back," he said. "But he was for us, I want him back."
Grykuliak told the Journal he felt no guilt for allowing his son and other minors to drink at the hall party.
"There was adult supervision. The party crowd had nothing to do with those bums who took my son."
"We all drank in our time before the age of consent, and did this violence befall us? No. This comes from people raised without any morals. I'm shocked, devastated. I simply can't understand it.
"What must we do? Stop selling steak knives? These kids who kill just come from a different world."
No arrests have been made and no suspects have been identified in connection with Edmonton's 33rd homicide of 2006.
On November 21st, 2006 the Edmonton Sun published an interview with Teah Lucciantonio.
The 17-year-old woman had stepped outside the La Perle community league hall to check on Evan who was dealing with some partycrashers.
Lucciantonio said she saw two men who appeared to be Asian pushing Evan back and forth.
"One held him while the other stabbed him," Lucciantonio told the Sun.
"I grabbed Evan and just held him [as he fell] to the ground. He just said, 'Teah,' and then his eyes rolled back in his head."
"There was so much blood."
Lucciantonio said the two attackers – one clad in a red track suit – ran away after she grabbed the dying teen.
Another at the party who saw the fight begin ran inside the hall when the two men started punching Grykuliak.
He said some of Grykuliak's older relatives were working security inside the hall.
"When I came back, it was too late. He was on the ground," the friend added.
While police have not identified any suspects, the Sun reported friends of the victim said their names were known in the community.
The medical examiner confirmed Evan Grykuliak died from a stab wound to the chest.
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Friends of Evan and fellow students at Ross Sheppard Composite High School set up the Evan G. Memorial Fund. Donations to cover funeral expenses were taken at the school.
A remembrance was held at Ross Sheppard on November 22nd, 2006.
A thousand students filled the main gymnasium for a ceremony that was closed to those outside the school. The gathering was organised by Evan's friends.
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Students speaking to media after the event were unanimous in their praise for the 17-year-old while calling for an end to violence among their peers.
In a twist of irony, just as students at Ross Sheppard were saying their final goodbyes, a student was assaulted inside J.H. Picard School.
A Grade 12 student was not hurt in the incident and police continue to look for a suspect.
The Edmonton Sun later reported the suspect was one of two teens charged in connection with the stabbing death of Joshua Hunt -- full details on the November 2006 Crime Report page.
On November 23rd, 2006 a memorial service for Evan James Grykuliak was held at West Meadows Baptist Church, 9333 199 Street.
The memorial opened with Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven, a song about the death of Clapton's four-year-old son.
The gathering was told how Grykuliak had a golden soul that inspired his friends and family to better themselves.
"Evan made the choice to keep on smiling, and so can we," Pastor Lorne Trudgian told the crowd. "He's taught you how to love, so love."
"He sucked up teachings and encouragement like a big, smiling sponge," recalled former soccer coach Jon Rossall.
The man pleaded with teens to settle disputes without violence.
"I'm angry because a wonderful young man's life has been taken without reason, without logic, and we're left to question why."
"If we as parents and you as young people don't get these messages, then there won't be enough churches in the city for grieving friends and relatives," said Rossall.
"We need to make this part of Evan's legacy," he said.
Family spokesman Terri Bailey offered thanks for the outpouring of support since Evan's life was stolen from them.
"We will know that his loving spirit and insightful lessons will be with us forever," she said.
"Don't let Evan die within you," Evan's uncle Tye Johnson said. "I promise you, Evan, you'll never die within me."
On November 24th, 2006 police announced a 17-year-old male was charged with second-degree murder, assault with a weapon, and two counts of possession of an offensive weapon in connection with Grykuliak's death.
He cannot be identified under provision of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Acting on witness statements and leads developed by officers on the case, police arrested the youth at a north-end residence in the area of 131st Street and 157th Avenue at about 1:00 a.m.
Police said the arrest was effected without incident.
The teen was to be held in police custody until his first appearance in court on November 27th, 2006.
Police also said no other suspects were being sought in connection with the homicide. Police declined to say whether a weapon was recovered or if a motive was determined.
On November 27th, 2006 the 17-year-old male accused of fatally stabbing Evan Grykuliak made a brief court appearance.
A judge told the youth he would face adult sentencing if convicted.
The 17-year-old was then scheduled to be back in court December 27th, 2006. There was no word if a bail application had been made or proposed.
The teen cannot be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
On the same morning Evan Grykuliak was murdered, another young man was stabbed to death in Edmonton.
An altercation on Whyte Avenue with a group of men described as being between 19 and 22 years of age resulted in the death of Dylan Cole McGillis, 20.
The near-simultaneous stabbing deaths of Evan and Dylan saw city officials pressed for answers.
Mayor Stephen Mandel, aware of the signficance of public perception, tried to re-assure citizens while offering a directive.
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"This is number #1 issue. People have to know the City of Edmonton is a safe city."
"We have to appeal to the court system to put some teeth into the laws that are there to deal with the kind of challenges that are being faced by cities today."
"The time has come that the courts have got to step up and begin to give the police some support when they do arrest these people who are committing these crimes."
Mandel offered his own view about the type of weapon used in the weekend's murders.
"It boggles my mind that many things are settled with a knife. Knives are not a fist – and people die from it."
Easy access to knives were also an issue police chief Mike Boyd pointed to in his statements to the media.
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"If somebody's got a weapon with them, they're more than likely going to use it."
The police chief invited community involvement at all levels to come up with solutions.
"I'm talking about community members. I'm talking about mothers and fathers. I'm talking about our court system and the justice system officials. I'm talking about educators. I'm talking about all of us bending down and picking up the ball and not dropping it on this issue."
While the politicians were offering their assessment, University of Alberta criminologist Bill Pitt's opinion was sought out by the Global and CTV Edmonton news teams.
Pitt said policing the availability of knives was a non-starting issue.
"We've tried to restrict firearms and you can get them anywhere in the city. So as far as trying to restrict knives that would be an even more hopeless adventure."
The criminologist said the problem of Edmonton's recent violence among youth stems from what they're seeing coming out of the judicial system.
"I think what they're creating is a geography of uncertainty in this country as to what's going to happen in the courts."
"And anytime you have that uncertainty you're going to have disorder. And when you have disorder, you're going to have more violence."
Pitt said the courts need to impose tougher sentences on young people who commit violent crimes.
"It's not all society's fault. There's an individual choice here that people are making. There's a psychology of murder."
"We have to get some truth in sentencing."
"We have to get some people on the bench who have some backbone and put these violent offenders away for a long, long period of time and protect society from them."
Pitt also said teens committing violent crimes are fearless because of the light sentences being imposed, and that the 'thrill of the kill' had become the new high – more powerful than any drug.
The only antidote, he said, is to provide a deterrent. However, the impact may take a generation to be felt.
"What we have coming up through the system right now are very unhappy, angry, thin-skinned males that are jumping – upping the ante to homicide when somebody looks at them sideways."
Caught between all the experts are parents and the cop on the beat.
Global Edmonton interviewed police Cst. Maurice Brodeur who helps facilitate a group called People Against Youth Violence.
Brodeur feels the path to addressing the problem starts in the home.
"Sometimes we don't want to parent as our parents did – maybe we thought our parents were too strict. So then we want to be friends with our kids."
"That's wrong – we need to guide our kids."
As the 33rd homicide of 2006, 17-year-old Evan Grykuliak's death came exactly one year to the day after the city's 33rd murder of 2005.
On November 19th, 2005 Cameron Campbell, also 17, was stabbed to death at a house party by a 17-year-old young offender.
It was also the same day Shane Rolston, also 17, was beaten to death by four 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old, also at a house party, in Sherwood Park.
With Evan Grykuliak's murder taking place during a function at a quasi-public facility, attention was focused on the practises used by the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, an organisation largely made up of volunteers.
Federation executive director Russ Dahms told the Edmonton Journal those running each hall confirm that the events have a liquor licence, require adults to book the facility and be involved in what's happening.
Some halls insist renters take out liability insurance and ask for deposits by cheque so the names and addresses of the people in charge can be verified.
Information about renting a community league hall is available at the EFCL web site which also provides a link to a tipsheet advising volunteers how to guard against potential trouble.
"You're setting up the best context you can ... but when the event happens, it's a private function. When things go sideways, what communities have done is they will call police," Dahms said.
Despite the dozens of weddings, birthday parties, family reunions and other celebrations held at Edmonton halls each weekend, Dahms said he averages only about three reports of trouble each year.
Dahms told the Journal there aren't enough volunteers to watch over every get-together, hiring supervisors would add substantially to the rental fee and it isn't practical to check the ID of everyone inside to ensure there aren't underage drinkers.
Grykuliak's father was in attendance at the La Perle party and things had gone well. Dahms noted the stabbing occurred outside as the event was winding down.
"The facility owner rents it for a private function. How far does your duty of care go ... in monitoring their use of the facility?"
The La Perle league put a moratorium on rentals for two weeks and was to review their rental policies in January, 2007.
The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission launched an investigation to see if the licence was issued properly to someone over 18 and minors weren't being served alcohol.