Four additional people were charged today by Hamilton police in connection with the Nov. 30, 2013 murder of McMaster student Tyler Johnson.

The arrests followed raids of three Hamilton residences. Police have charged Hamiltonians Chad Davidson, 34, and Joshua Barreira, 25, with first degree murder. Police have yet to publicly identify two others, a man and a woman, who have been charged with being accessories after the fact.

These arrests took place several months after the initial arrest of 19-year-old Brandon Barreira on Dec. 11, 2013, who was charged with first degree murder.

Johnson, a 30-year-old fourth year engineering student, was shot in the chest in the early hours of Nov. 30 following an altercation outside of Vida La Pita and Tim Hortons on King Street West near Hess Village.

More to come.

 

It’s been six weeks since 30-year-old McMaster student Tyler Johnson was shot and killed near Hess Village. And yet despite the elapsed time, the big questions of responsibility and motive remain largely unknown.

The fourth-year mechanical engineer’s bright future was stolen from him in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013. At approximately 3 a.m., Johnson was involved in an incident between two groups of men outside of Vida La Pita restaurant near the corner of King Street West and Caroline Street, one block east of Hamilton’s popular bar district, Hess Village.

Hamilton police sergeant Paul Hamilton said that the conflict occurring between the two groups “quickly escalated when one man produced a handgun and shot the victim.”

Johnson’s body was found in the nearby Tim Hortons parking lot and was pronounced dead at Hamilton General Hospital. Initially, emergency responders thought Johnson had been stabbed and began trying to treat him for stab wounds before realizing that he had been fatally shot in the chest.

One arrest was made in the weeks following Johnson’s death. Brandon Barreira, a 19-year-old Hamiltonian was arrested in Cambridge on Dec. 11 with a first-degree murder charge. He has since made brief procedural court appearances via video remand to set later appearance dates. His next appearance is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 9.

Police are still seeking several suspects and persons of interests following the release of surveillance videos last month. The videos, taken from Tim Hortons and Vida La Pita surveillance footage and posted on the Hamilton Police YouTube channel, are an appeal to the public to identify six different men who were possibly involved in or were witness to Johnson’s shooting.

Despite posting the videos, police have yet to make any further arrests. Anyone with further information is asked to contact the Hamilton homicide unit at 905-546-4123 or to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Johnson was the second homicide in a two-month period for that particular parking lot on King Street West. On Sept. 15, 2013, David Pereira, 18, was stabbed to death at 2:30 a.m. Raleigh Stubbs, 49, was charged with his murder.

Since Johnson’s violent passing, accounts of his good nature and determination to become an engineer have been shared with the media. Sessional instructor Joel Hilchey taught Johnson last term in the fourth-year class Engineering & Social Responsibility. In a class where “the goal is to reinforce that being a good engineer involves being a good person as well,” Johnson seems to have embodied that manifesto.

“The week before he died, he talked to me after class [to] challenge one of his grades on an assignment,” Hilchey shared. “The class in general did pretty poorly on the assignment although Tyler did very well. I was crowded with a group of people after class as I often am but … he waited patiently and I looked at his paper and said, ‘you should go challenge this – I think it was graded too harshly’ and he said, ‘thanks a lot, I really appreciate it,’ and took off after that.”

Hilchey said that what struck him most about Johnson was that, “In a conversation about challenging a grade where lots of students are regularly hostile, he really wasn’t. He was nothing but respectful.”

A regular attendee of the class, Hilchey said that Johnson “did good work on his assignments and I can tell he was putting a lot of thought into them.” Johnson had also recently been accepted to complete his masters at McMaster next fall.

One particular class assignment to create a TED talk sharing one’s wisdom with the world resulted in a video that Johnson posted on YouTube on Nov. 10. Titled “Decisions we make and the impact they can have on society,” the video has been shared and discussed frequently since his death and has accumulated nearly 4000 views.

“It may be poetic, or maybe it’s just a coincidence that Tyler talked about the long term impact of our decisions,” Hilchey said, echoing the opinion of many viewers after watching three-and-a-half minute piece.

“One of my educational goals is to help students think about more than just the strict ‘mathematical’ definition of engineering,” Hilchey continued. “I want people to be good people and from what I can tell, Tyler was committed to that. He was committed to developing himself, bettering himself and bettering the world.”

Grief counseling continues to be offered to students at the Student Wellness Centre in McMaster University Student Centre room B101. Appointments can be made at the Centre or by calling 905-525-9140 x27700.

 

In an effort to identify more suspects connected to the Nov. 30 murder of McMaster student Tyler Johnson, Hamilton police have released a series of surveillance camera videos and have appealed to the public to name the men caught on camera.

All of the footage is from the area around Tim Hortons and Vida La Pita on King Street West in between Caroline Street and Hess Street.

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In this video, police are “looking to identify two suspects described as white males walking in the video, one white male wearing a blue jacket and red hoody, second white male wearing a black hoody jacket.”

[youtube id="lKMM7ZcScZY" width="620" height="360"]

In this video, police are trying to identify "the two persons described as white males walking out the door, one white male wearing a white shirt, dark colored vest and baseball hat is considered a suspect, the second white male is a person of interest and wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and white shoes."

[youtube id="fhP5xaUUrvY" width="620" height="360"]

In this third video, police need to identify "the suspect walking through the door wearing the white shirt, dark colored vest, baseball hat, blue jeans and dark colored footwear."

[youtube id="L_iGPbC16JM" width="620" height="360"]

In this last video, police are looking to identify "a person of interest at the cash counter described as a white male with black short hair, wearing a Puma shirt, a black jacket with the lettering GRRC on the back, blue jeans and white shoes."

[youtube id="NJ5qzfMtapg" width="620" height="360"]

Only one arrest has been made so far in connection with the early morning shooting and slaying of Johnson. Brandon Barreira, 19, has been charged with first-degree murder and more arrests are expected as police search for further suspects.

Anyone with information about the suspects and persons of interest in the above videos is urged to make contact with Detective Jason Cattle of the homicide unit at 905-546-4123 or to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

 

 

 

An arrest has finally been made following the Nov. 30 murder of a McMaster mechanical engineering student.

Brandon Barreira, 19, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the early morning shooting and slaying of Tyler Johnson, 30, in the parking lot of Vida La Pita and Tim Hortons on King Street West near Hess Village.

Police, who now identify the fatality as a targeted murder, are using surveillance video to try and identify more suspects involved in the incident.

The following video has been released in an effort to identify remaining suspects. Police are "looking to identify two suspects described as white males walking in the video, one white male wearing a blue jacket and red hoody, second white male wearing a black hoody jacket."

[youtube id="lKMM7ZcScZY" width="620" height="360"]

Anyone with further information is urged to make contact with Detective Jason Cattle of the homicide unit at 905-546-4123 or to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Grief counselling is being offered to students affected by the death of their peer at the Student Wellness Centre in McMaster University Student Centre room B101. Appointments can be made at the Centre or by calling 905-525-9140 x27700.

 

 

Last updated: Dec. 5

In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, Nov. 30,  McMaster student Tyler Johnson was shot during an altercation on King Street West and died on the scene from his gunshot wounds.

Johnson, aged 30, was a fourth-year mechanical engineering student planning to pursue his Masters at McMaster next year. At approximately 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, Johnson was involved in an incident between two groups of men outside of Vida La Pita restaurant near the corner of King Street West and Caroline Street, one block east of Hess Village, Hamilton's popular bar district.

Hamilton police detective Paul Hamilton said in a news release that the conflict occurring between the two groups, "quickly escalated when one man produced a handgun and shot the victim."

Johnson's body was found in the nearby Tim Hortons parking lot and was pronounced dead at Hamilton General Hospital. This is the second homicide in a two month period for this parking lot on King Street West. On Sept. 15, David Pereira, 18, was stabbed to death at 2:30 a.m. Raleigh Stubbs, 49, has been charged with his murder.

Ishwar Puri, Dean of Engineering, spoke on behalf of McMaster regarding the tragedy. "The University is expressing its condolences to the family and friends of Tyler. Of course, this will be upsetting news for those who studied with Tyler, those who many have taught him and known him," he said.

Details about the circumstances leading to Johnson's death and those responsible remain sparse.  Police are interviewing witnesses at this time and urge anyone with information to make contact with Detective Jason Cattle of the homicide unit at 905-546-4123 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Johnson's family is holding a visitation at the Marlatt Funeral Home at 615 Main St. East on Thursday, Dec. 5, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The funeral service will be held in the same location on Friday, Dec. 6, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

Grief counselling is being offered to students at the Student Wellness Centre in McMaster University Student Centre room B101. Appointments can be made at the Centre or by calling 905-525-9140 x27700.