Police say ‘misinformation’ led to Hamilton’s 10th homicide Michael Sullivan, 51, desperately tried to outrun truck hunting him ByBill Dunphy According to police, Hamiltons 10th homicide victim this year was just an ordinary innocent man going about his business when misinformation led a killer to hunt him down and slay him with a truck. Michael Sullivan, a father of two, was 51 years old when he died Saturday. The attack on Sullivan — which police kept secret for 12 weeks — left witnesses shaken. Thats just about the coldest thing Ive seen in my 61 years, said one man, too afraid to let his name be used while the killer is at large. To use your vehicle as a weapon … This witness didnt see the actual attack, which occurred on the afternoon of July 29, in the back lot of a Barton Street restaurant supply store. But he did see the desperate chase that led up to it, and was the first to come upon the grievously injured Sullivan, lying crumpled against a door frame and brick wall, his mangled bike beside him. The guy had slammed against the wall on his bike and his head, his head was mangled … the man recalled Monday afternoon, literally shuddering as he described the scene. Mere seconds earlier, the man said, he had watched from his window as Sullivan crossed Cavell Street on his bike, moving from the east to the west side of the street. Neighbours said they heard the squealing tires and brakes as a pickup truck turned off Barton onto Cavell, racing north. And the guy, when he saw the truck go by, he (crossed back east and) went in behind Barbers (the restaurant equipment store), the witness said. And the truck backed up, spinning his tires, threw it in gear and went back up towards Barton and turned into Barbers, where the guy went on the bike. The man said he thought somethings not right about this, and I run downstairs and just as Im running down I heard a bang! Jim McCluskey, the general manager at Barbers, heard the squealing tires and the bang but at first put it down to the noises of a busy commercial street — until sometime later, when the witness came into his store and said there was a man lying in the back. McCluskey rushed out with the man and found Sullivan slumped against the rear wall of one of their buildings, seriously injured with very laboured breathing. He rushed back into his shop, asked staff there to call 911 and rushed back outside to see what he could do to help. Not very much, as it turned out. Sullivan was rushed to nearby Hamilton General Hospital but never recovered from his injuries and was being kept alive by machines. Last week, Hamilton police say, Michaels family made the tough decision to discontinue life support and on Saturday … Michael succumbed to his injuries. Homicide detective Peter Thom said Sullivan was completely innocent in this whole situation. It could have been anyone riding down the street. According to Thom, the incident began about half an hour before and some distance to the west at about 2:30 p.m. when Sullivan was shopping in the Barton Street East and Lottridge Street area. While there, he had a brief interaction with some people and then continued about his business. Thom refuses to describe the interaction but says it led to some misinformation being passed on to the driver of a black Ford F150 pickup truck, who then set out to hunt Sullivan down. Twenty-five minutes later he found him, struck him behind Barbers and fled eastbound on Barton, then south on Barnesdale, police allege. He was a community-minded individual, Thom said, declining to say more about Sullivan. The family, he said, has asked for some privacy while they grieve. Thom could not explain why police kept news of the attack secret for so long, noting that until Sullivans death, divisional detectives handled the case. I guess they decided, for the integrity of the investigation, not to issue a press release, he said. Police are appealing to anyone with information to call Detective Paul Staats at 905-546-2920 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS. bdunphy@thespec
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:12:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015