CZUBA o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-06-28 published
Mom, 2 kids slain
Nine-year-old girl escapes ordeal to call police
By Kelly PEDRO,
Free▼
Press▼
Crime▼
Reporter▼
A terrified, barefoot nine-year-old girl frantically knocked
on neighbours' doors to get help for her mother and two siblings
held hostage yesterday by a man inside an east London home.
By the time gunfire subsided at 682 Princess Ave., four people
were dead, two police officers were shot and a city was in shock
over the slayings of a woman, her 13-year-old daughter and five-year-old
son.
Police didn't identify the victims yesterday.
But relatives confirmed that Halina
CZUBA, her 13-year-old daughter,
Julia, and five-year-old son, Michal, died after gunfire erupted
at their house just east of Adelaide Street about 2: 30 a.m.
The body of a man also was found inside the home. The province's
Special Investigations Unit said the man, who hasn't been identified,
died of a gunshot wound.
Halina's husband, Jan, is a trucker who was in the United States
at the time of the deadly shooting.
"Jan is just devastated. He's in shock," Dominik
SZYMANSKI, a
relative who tutored the children, said yesterday. "They were
all bright kids. It's just unbelievable that this could happen."
What happened inside the house is still a mystery.
"This is a very large tragedy, the details of which will unfold
in the days to come," Const. Jeff
ARBING said.
The▼ couple's third child, nine-year-old Joanna
CZUBA, knocked
on at least three neighbours' houses trying to help her family.
"She knocked on our door, it was a panicked knock," said a neighbour,
who didn't give her name.
When the woman's husband went outside to check who was at the
door, he saw Joanna with neighbours.
The child called 911 at 2: 25 a.m. to report someone was beating
her mother.
Two minutes later, two police officers approached the front door
when a shotgun blast from inside blew a hole through it, striking
one officer in the shoulder and arm and grazing another officer's
face.
The officers returned fire, the Special Investigations Unit said.
It's unclear whether the unidentified man died of a self-inflicted
gunshot or from the exchange with police.
Joanna and the neighbours were still outside when shots were
fired and police ordered them into the neighbour's Elizabeth
Street house.
Joanna was petrified but unhurt, the neighbour said.
"I took her in the kitchen, sat her down and rubbed her back,"
the woman said. "She saw what (the gunman) was doing to her mom."
Joanna didn't recognize the gunman, the woman said.
Neighbour Ron
HARPER said he heard a sharp knock on his door
about 2: 30 a.m., but didn't think much of it.
"Then I heard five shots and someone yell, 'I'll kill them all,'
" he said.
When HARPER looked outside, he saw police hitting the house with
a battering ram.
"The next thing I know, I saw them (the officers) running back
with two kids. They were pretty limp," he said.
"When they put them in the ambulances, the ambulances didn't
leave right away so I don't think they made it."
Dan and Tammy
STROM were sleeping when police pounded on their
door and used the location to monitor the brown brick bungalow
across the street.
Heavily armed tactical officers told the couple and their two
frightened children to go to the basement and keep their heads
down, Dan STROM said.
"It was a little nerve-wracking," he said. "The police were in
and out and then I heard, 'Freeze! London police."
A 13-year veteran and rookie with one year on the force were
injured by the shotgun blast. The constables were taken to hospital
and later released.
"They were shaken, but relieved," police Chief Murray
FAULKNER
said of the officers' families. "This is one of these situations
where as a husband, wife or partner of a police officer, you
dread the call."
The Special Investigations Unit was called in to investigate
the man's death. London police are investigating the homicides
of the woman and her two children.
Neither the Special Investigations Unit or London police were
releasing many details about the four deaths.
"You have to understand this was not the usual man-with-a-gun
call," FAULKNER said. "Police entered because we are sworn to
protect life, so that's why the incident wrapped up quicker than
normal."
Police have been to the address before, sources confirmed, but
would not say why.
Dan STROM said his neighbours, the
CZUBAs, were a quiet, friendly
Polish family who didn't speak much English. They had lived at
the house for about 15 years.
Besides the shot officers, two tactical officers were treated
for smoke inhalation after a small fire, believed to be arson,
broke out.
London police called in counsellors to speak to colleagues of
the injured officers,
FAULKNER said.
All day a London detective worked alongside an Special Investigations
Unit investigator, carefully documenting the scene. Blood marks
could be seen on the front porch. Some windows of the home were
shattered.
Just before 9 a.m., a detective and uniformed officer brought
out the family's pet -- a trembling dachshund puppy.
Police evacuated homes one street north of Princess on Elias
Street. Neighbours were told it was because of a gas leak and
saw Union Gas on scene.
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CZUBA o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-06-29 published
Number of killings not seen in century
By Jonathan
SHER,
Free
Press
Reporter
Less than 24 hours after what may be the worst mass-slaying in
the city's history, another Londoner has been killed, the carnage
the region's worst in more than a century.
"I don't think there's been anything like this since the Donnellys,
and that was in Lucan," said John
LISOWSKI, a former police board
member whose research of crime in London is being used for a
book that chronicles the past 150 years for the city police force.
Halina CZUBA, her children Julia and Michal, and a gunman who
was a family relative were found dead in the
CZUBA home Monday.
Yesterday, Yorn
MEY was found dead, slain in her Chippewa Drive
home. Her husband has been charged with second-degree murder.
The bloody barrage appears unprecedented in the city, historian
Dan BROCK said.
"Nothing else comes to mind at all. A family wiped out -- nothing
of that magnitude."
The▲▼ killings at the
CZUBA home on Princess Avenue were also unusual
in another sense, said Paul
WHITEHEAD, a criminologist at the
University of Western Ontario.
"The most typical situation is the husband kills his spouse and
children and then himself,"
WHITEHEAD said.
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CZUBA o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-06-29 published
Shooter, grieving dad related
Frank GREDA, who died in the shootout, was a trucker and a father
of three.
By Kelly PEDRO,
Free▲▼
Press▲▼
Crime▲▼
Reporter▲▼
They were both truckers, fathers of three children and went to
the same church.
They were also relatives.
But their worlds collided Monday when tragedy took away almost
the entire family of one of the London men and left the other
one dead.
As Jan CZUBA was left to bury his family and console his surviving
daughter, details emerged yesterday about the other man -- Franciszek
(Frank) GREDA, 40 -- involved in the triple homicide.
Police▼ found
GREDA dead of a gunshot wound in the
CZUBA house
at 682 Princess Ave., Ontario's Special Investigations Unit said
yesterday.
A fire broke out at the house moments after the shooting.
The
Special
Investigations Unit said
GREDA was known to the family,
but wouldn't reveal precisely how.
The Special Investigations Unit is a watchdog agency that probes
police actions that result in death or injury to civilians.
GREDA, a father with three children under 10, had rented a northeast
London apartment with his wife for at least seven years, a neighbour
said.
Some neighbours said the family was quiet and friendly. Others,
still shocked by the tragedy, declined to comment.
"Out of respect for the family, I don't want to say anything
except I'm deeply saddened by it. It's a horrible tragedy," said
a neighbour in an apartment above the family.
The GREDA family are members of Our Lady of Czestochowa Church
on Hill Street, where the
CZUBA family were also parishioners,
Rev. Adam Gabriel confirmed.
London police and the Special Investigations Unit are still separately
probing the deaths from Monday's chaos.
The▲▼ force is probing the deaths of Halina
CZUBA, 37, and her
two children, Michal, 5, and Julia, 13.
The Children's Aid Society of London and Middlesex is helping
police -- common in cases where kids are involved -- but won't
say whether it had previously been involved with the family.
The
Special
Investigations Unit is probing
GREDA's death.
GREDA fired with a shotgun at two London police officers as they
approached the brown brick bungalow just before 2: 30 a.m. Monday.
One officer returned fire, the Special Investigations Unit said.
London police found
GREDA dead inside, with a gunshot wound,
along with the bodies of Halina, Julia and Michal. It's still
unknown whether
GREDA died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Autopsies began yesterday.
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CZUBA o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-07-03 published
CZUBA,
Halina,
Michal and Julia
At home, on June 27, 2005, Mrs. Halina
CZUBA and her children
Michal and Julia. Left to mourn their loss is beloved husband
and father Jan
CZUBA and loving daughter and sister Joanna. Survived
by mother/grandmother, Marianna
LOBODA, brother/uncle Miroslaw
LOBODA and all of his family in Poland. They will be sadly missed
by uncle Ignacy
SZYMANSKI, cousin Teresa and Wes
SZYMANSKI and
their son Dominik, all Malewaj and
LOBODA family in Poland, Regina
RUCINSKA with her husband Hendryk and their children, grandparents
Krystyna and Michal
CZUBA, aunt Jadwiga and her husband Andrzej
MAGDZIARZ with daughter Katarzyna, aunt Anna
CZUBA, uncle Piotr
CZUBA, uncle Tomasz
CZUBA, great grandmother Agnieszka
SZUBA
and family of Eugeniusz, Kazimiera
CZUBA and her son Jacek
CZUBA
with family from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Wladyslawa and
Stanislaw MIERZWA and their family of Poland, Aniela
DZIADURA
and her late husband Mieczyslaw. Julia
ZMUDZKA and her family
of Poland. Kazimierz
CZUBA from Poland. Zofia and Bogdan
MIERZWA
with family. Cecylia and Marek
DAVID and family, the
RAK family
and KUZIORA family of Hamilton. Visitation in the Lloyd R. Needham
Funeral Chapel, 520 Dundas Street (London) on Sunday, 2-4 and
7-9 p.m. The Funeral Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Czestochowa
Roman Catholic Church (419 Hill Street) on Monday, July 4th,
2005 at 11 a.m. Interment to follow at St. Peter's Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the
CZUBA family through
Toronto Dominion Bank.
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CZUBA o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-09-26 published
Homicide No. 13
By Kelly PEDRO,
Free▲
Press▲
Crime▲
Reporter▲
A Toronto-area man faces a second-degree murder charge after
one man was shot to death and another injured in a pub parking
lot early yesterday.
Dwayne PITTER, 23, of Vaughan, was charged yesterday with second-degree
murder and attempted murder in connection with London's record
13th homicide.
PITTER is to appear in a London court today.
Joshua Kenneth
WILLIAMS, 22, of the London area, was shot in
the torso outside the Roxbury Pub and Grill at 1165 Oxford St.
E. at 2: 20 a.m.
He died later.
Three people, including
PITTER, were taken into custody. The
other two were released, police said last night.
Detectives scoured the lot yesterday as they wrestled with a
skyrocketing number of homicides this year.
Neighbours said they saw a crowd leave the bar about 2: 30 a.m.,
then heard screaming.
"I heard the gunshots and I saw someone go down. I thought it
was firecrackers," said a woman who was standing outside the
Roxbury near a variety store at the time. She did want to give
her name.
"I heard two shots and I ran into the (variety) store."
Police said a dispute outside the bar led to the shooting.
Police and paramedics arrived to find
WILLIAMS seriously hurt
and another man shot in the arm. The second man was treated and
released from hospital.
Police have recovered a handgun and are not looking for any more
weapons, said Det. Andrew
WHITFORD.
It's unclear whether
WILLIAMS, the injured man and the three
people in custody had just left the Roxbury when the shooting
happened, WHITFORD said.
But there were about 40 people in the parking lot when a disagreement
broke out, he said. Police are still probing the cause of the
dispute.
WHITFORD said many witnesses: have come forward and bar staff
have co-operated.
Roxbury staff declined comment yesterday.
Neighbours have complained of fights and loud noise after the
bar's closing time.
"It's scary," said Brenda
PARSONS, who lives in a nearby townhouse
complex. "You don't need television to live in this neighbourhood.
There's enough entertainment outside."
PARSONS said she thinks police should patrol the area more regularly
on Friday and Saturday nights.
The parking lot is the same one in which Ryan
VLAAD, 26, died
after being punched in the head during an early morning brawl
in July 2002.
Ward 3 Coun. Bernie
MacDONALD said he's fielded complaints from
neighbours who have had beer bottles thrown at their houses and
on their property after 2 a.m. and have heard fights breaking
out.
"This has been an ongoing thing with the residents," he said.
The concerns were passed on to police and
MacDONALD thought the
problems had been quelled until he heard about yesterday's shooting.
But MacDONALD said he thinks drugs are the "root evil" behind
violence and shootings in the city this year.
"Until we cut the flow of drugs, we're going to see this and
it's going to continue to rise," he said.
Police said they don't know whether drugs were involved in the
fatal shooting.
Officers blocked off a large section of the strip mall, which
also houses a Sport Mart, Goodwill, variety store, karate school
and Tim Hortons.
A green Jeep and a black car also were taped off, though police
wouldn't say why.
A shell casing and knife were visible at the scene.
A green camouflage hat, grey T-shirt, plastic beer cups, a cigarette
pack and a lighter were strewn near what appeared to be a bloody
stain near the black car.
Forensic detectives picked through the evidence and used a fire
department aerial truck to photograph and videotape the lot.
An autopsy will be conducted today to determine the cause of
death.
Other London Slayings This Year
- January 9: Laura
WILSON, 20, was found stabbed on Thistledown
Way. Her ex-boyfriend is charged with first-degree murder.
- February 14: Kenneth Michael
BANNON, 41, was found dead in
an Albert Street apartment. Brenda
JOHN, 43, is charged with
manslaughter.
- March 30: James
BLAIR, 20, was stabbed outside an Oakville
Avenue apartment building. Mwangi
GETHIGA, 18, is charged with
second-degree murder.
- April 22: Wilford
BEBEE, 65, was stabbed outside his McNay
Street home. His stepson is charged with second-degree murder.
- May 2: An infant was found dead in a home on Four Oaks Crescent.
Katherine PECKHAM, 25, is charged with manslaughter.
- June 23: John
MARYS, 71, was stabbed in his William Street
apartment. Godwin
GRIXTI, 53, is charged first-degree murder.
- June 27: Halina
CZUBA, 37, her daughter, Julia, 13, and son,
Michal, 5, were stabbed in their 682 Princess Ave. home. Frank
GREDA, 40, was also found dead in the house from a self-inflicted
gunshot wound.
- June 28: Yorn
MEY was slain in her Chippewa Drive home. Her
husband is charged with second-degree murder.
- August 5: Stephen
CORMACK, 45, was stabbed after a botched
robbery in a Huron Street apartment. Dameon
LODGE, 24, is charged
with manslaughter.
- September 8: A fight involving two men left Kai
ZHENG, 22,
dead outside 1128 Adelaide St. N. Geun Chul
LEE, 25, is charged
with manslaughter.
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CZUBA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-06-28 published
Four die in shooting at London family home
By Timothy
APPLEBY,
Tuesday,
June 28, 2005, Page A7
A quiet residential street in downtown London, Ontario, exploded
into violence early yesterday, a melee that ended in a shootout
with police and a house fire that left four people dead and four
police officers injured.
The house is owned by a long-distance trucker and his wife. Police
were summoned by a 911 call placed by one of the family's three
young children from a neighbour's house. Local media reported
that the couple's nine-year-old daughter placed the call.
When police entered the house, the girl's mother and two siblings
and the gunman were dead.
The province's Special Investigations Unit, which examines all
deaths and serious injuries involving police, released no names.
It was unclear who the gunman was.
Neighbours, however, confirmed that the modest Princess Avenue
bungalow was occupied by John
CZUBA, his wife and their children.
The family emigrated from Poland several years ago, said Andrew
KRALKA, who lives directly across the street.
The father was believed by local residents to have been driving
through the United States when the family members were killed.
"It's all been a big shock for us; this is very tragic," Mr.
KRALKA said.
Alerted at 2: 25 a.m. by the 911 call reporting an assault in
progress, police arriving at the household were met by gunfire
that struck two of the officers.
Police returned the fire, but authorities would not say whether
the gunman, later found dead inside the house from a single gunshot
wound, was killed by a police bullet or had committed suicide.
Both wounded officers were shot in the upper body but were wearing
body armour, and both were released from hospital yesterday.
The couple also had a 13-year-old daughter and a five-year-old
son.
London
Police
Constable Jeff
ARBING would say only the 911 emergency
call "came from a child, from a different location," adding that
in 15 years of police service, "a homicide of this magnitude
is something I haven't personally seen."
Neighbours recounted scenes of chaos. "I heard a quick 'Bang,
bang, bang, bang' -- four shots. It sounded like firecrackers
accompanied by a whole lot of police sirens," said David
STEVENS,
who was watching television at his home when the violence erupted
across the street.
"Then there was a second series of shots, about five minutes
later."
Amid scenes of shouted confusion, nearby residents retreated
to their basements for safety.
During the 20-minute confrontation, a fire also broke out at
the home, but it was unclear whether it stemmed from smoke grenades
that tactical officers threw in, or another source. Two police
officers were later treated in hospital for smoke inhalation.
"There was grey smoke just pouring out of the house," Mr.
STEVENS
said. Other neighbours described seeing police running down the
street with children in their arms, carrying them toward waiting
ambulances.
Both in their 40s, Mr. and Mrs.
CZUBA owned the home and had
lived there for several years.
Local residents described the family as courteous but introverted,
spending time with other Polish-Canadians instead of their immediate
neighbours.
Mr. CZUBA is often away and sometimes parks his rig on the street,
Mr. KRALKA said.
"They don't really associate with people on the street," said
another neighbour. "When we first moved here the kids were allowed
to play with the other kids, but then they weren't, and the kids
didn't go out any more.
"It makes me sad."
As to what triggered the violence, "That I'm not sure of," Constable
ARBING said.
"That's an honest answer. I don't know what we have here."
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CZUBA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2005-07-05 published
After fatal stabbings, man shot self, police say
Canadian Press, Tuesday, July 5, 2005 Page A8
Toronto -- A man found dead in a Southern Ontario home where
a mother and two children were stabbed to death killed himself
with a shotgun blast to the head, investigators said yesterday.
Police▲ found the body of Frank
GREDA, 40, with a sawed-off shotgun
in the bathroom of the home in London, Ontario, on June 27.
The▲ bloodied bodies of Halina
CZUBA, 37, her daughter Julia,
13, and son Michal, 5, were found elsewhere in the house.
The woman and girl were dead and the boy died a short time later
in hospital.
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CZUCZMAN o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-06-04 published
MIKITIUK,
Petronella "
Pat"
(CZUCZMAN)
At London Health Sciences Centre -South Street Campus on Tuesday,
May 31st, 2005 Petronella "Pat"
(CZUCZMAN)
MIKITIUK of London
in her 91st year, three days before the 61st anniversary of marriage
to her loving husband Harry
MIKITIUK who passed away on June
3rd, 2001. Dear mother of Stella
MIKITIUK and Michael
MIKITIUK
and his wife Pat all of London. Loving grandmother of Andrew
and Elena. Predeceased by her brothers Paul, Peter and Bernard
and her sisters Stashia and Mary. Sister of Kathleen
CZUCZMAN
in England, Gerard
CZUCZMAN and his wife
Siobhan of London, Barbara
MARTELL of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Julia and Estelle
KRUSIK of Kalamazoo,
Michigan and their families. A private family funeral service
was conducted in the chapel of the A. Millard George Funeral
Home, 60 Ridout Street South, London on Friday, June 3rd, 2005
with Reverend Henry
CASSANO of Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church
officiating. Interment in St. Peter's Cemetery, London. A memorial
mass in her memory to be celebrated at a later date. As an expression
of sympathy, memorial donations may be made to Madame Vanier
Children's Services, 871 Trafalgar Street, London, Ontario N5Z
1E6 where "Mrs. Murphy" was known for her love and care for all
children.
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CZUPSKI o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2005-05-20 published
CZUPSKI,
Wanda
Violet (née
OSOWSKI)
Peacefully at home on May 18, 2005. Predeceased by her parents
Charlie and Pearl
OSOWSKI.
Loving mother to Arlene and her husband
Terry NICHOLSON and Catherine and her husband James
WHITE/WHYTE.
Beloved
grandmother to Kimberley, Mathew, Andrew and Alexander. Visitation
will take place at the Cardinal Funeral Homes, 92 Annette St.
(near Keele) on Friday from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Service
Saturday at 10 a.m. Burial to follow at Glendale Memorial Gardens.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation
would be greatly appreciated by the family.
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