A 16-year-old boy is dead after a stabbing at a family gathering, Hamilton police say, and his 22-year-old cousin is in custody and charged with murder.
Police say they were called to a home on east Hamilton Mountain around 10 p.m. Sunday night. They said the teen was transferred to a hospital, where he died.
Laureano Bistoyong has been charged with first-degree murder.
Police say Bistoyong fled his family home on Cadham Boulevard and Upper Gage, near Rymal Road, after the stabbing.
He was found on Monday morning, Det. Sgt. Sara Beck told reporters at a press conference, after a citizen on east Hamilton Mountain called police to report a man in their unlocked car.
“There was something that led to an incident,” Beck told CBC Hamilton, but said she could not give any more details on the motive.
Beck said the stabbing took place inside Bistoyong’s residence with “many witnesses who came forward in this case and provided statements.”
Bistoyong will appear in court Monday afternoon.
Neighbour says family was having ‘yearly barbecue’ before stabbing
Linda Page says she has lived across the street from the house on Cadham Boulevard for the past 12 years. She said the family was having “a yearly barbecue” on Sunday night.
“They’re very quiet people and once a year they get together and it’s not overly noisy. No yelling, no screaming, nothing,” she said.
Page said she only knew something was wrong when police vehicles rolled up with their lights flashing.
She said the whole event has been unsettling in a community that is “very quiet.”
Neighbour Joe Locicero shares a back fence with the family living at the home where the stabbing took place.
He said he was out for a cigarette on his front porch when he heard “screaming and wailing” from the house behind him.
Up until then, he said, “none of the sounds that we heard would have indicated anything getting violent or all this. There was talking and laughter and happiness.”
At the press conference, Beck said, “the family is devastated by their loss and have asked for privacy.”