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Ottawa police homicide detectives are investigating the shooting death of a 53-year-old man in a Manor Park home steps away from Beechwood Cemetery.
The Ottawa Police Service said the shooting happened at 9:22 p.m. Friday in a home on Birch Avenue, a heavily treed street near Hemlock Road.
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On Saturday afternoon, police identified the victim as Kevin Willington of Ottawa.
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This newspaper has learned that Willington was a visitor to the home on Birch Avenue.
Reached by telephone, Willington’s family in British Columbia declined comment Saturday.
Willington grew up in North Vancouver and studied at Simon Fraser University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where he received a telecommunications diploma. He moved to Ottawa in 1999 to take a job at Nokia.
Willington was a passionate badminton player and coach. He was the longtime secretary of the Ottawa District Badminton Association and the former director of coaching for Badminton Ontario. He also served as a consultant and director with Badminton Canada.
Neighbours said the shooting happened in the home of a young, professional couple who regularly hosted what they called a “games night” each Friday. It’s believed the victim may have been visiting the couple at the time of the shooting.
Martha Nixon said she didn’t know anything untoward had happened until a police officer knocked on her door Friday evening. She opened the door to find the street full of police cars with their lights flashing.
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“That was the first I had heard of it,” she said, adding: “I’ve been here for more than 40 years, and we hardly ever have seen a police car on our street.”
Nixon said the young couple moved into the home about five years ago after purchasing it from its original owner and had been renovating it ever since. They regularly hosted a games night on Fridays, she said.
“There are always people here on Friday night,” she said. “I don’t know quite what went on, but it must have been something bad last night.”
Ottawa police said in a news release they had no reason to believe there was any ongoing risk to public safety as a result of the incident. No arrests had been made as of Saturday afternoon.
The investigation was ongoing and anyone with information was asked to contact the Ottawa Police Service’s homicide unit at 613-236-1222 ext. 5493. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477.
It was the second consecutive Friday night that resulted in a violent death in Ottawa.
On April 12, a 16-year-old was stabbed in Centretown’s McNabb Park during some kind of melee. The teen later died in hospital. Ottawa police said they had identified all of the potential suspects in that case, but an arrest had not yet been announced as of Saturday.
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