Six plead guilty to mob slaying

Pair of 911 calls prior to killing unheeded

Tue Dec 4 2007

By Mike McIntyre

PETER Debungee was a devoted father, a hard-working labourer and a law-abiding citizen.

None of that meant anything to a mob of drunken young men and women who randomly selected him to die, a Winnipeg court heard Monday.

The killers had been hanging around the Maryland Hotel yelling at people and trying to pick fights with strangers, apparently as a form of entertainment.

They capped off their night by slugging Debungee in the face as he walked down the street with his girlfriend, kicking him in the gut and dragging him into the middle of a road to repeatedly jump on his head.

Several witnesses -- including a group of children at a nearby playground -- looked on in horror.

"The victim looked lifeless and they were still kicking him," she said in a statement presented to court Monday.

Debungee, 45, had tried to run for his life, but was quickly overpowered by the group. He suffered massive trauma and lapsed into a coma. He was taken off life support and died three days later.

Several witnesses told the Free Press they tried to get police to round up the unruly mob earlier that day.

"He lost his life for no reason. It could've been anybody," said Maryland Hotel owner Amarjeet Warraic. He said the group celebrated the savage beating by giving each other "high-fives."

Warraich said his staff called 911 twice that day, once at about noon and then about 4:30 p.m., to report a group of people was drinking in a nearby parking lot and harassing and chasing hotel patrons.

He said a third 911 call was made from the hotel at 7:45 p.m. -- about 45 minutes before Debungee was attacked -- as a group of people tried to break down the doors of the hotel and attack staff, who had locked the group out about eight hours earlier for drunken, rowdy behaviour.

Warraich and his general manager said police responded only to the third call, arriving about 8:30 p.m. and causing most of the attackers to scatter.

Debungee was jumped a short time later on McGee Street, just south of Notre Dame Avenue. Police returned to the scene and arrested the accused after they fled into a nearby apartment suite and were pointed out by witnesses.

Three other accused -- Christopher Nattaway, Alfred Wood and Quentin Young -- are expected to be sentenced today. Ernest Harper and Cindy Olson also pleaded guilty Monday, but have adjourned their sentencing hearings until the new year.

A seventh accused -- who can't be named because he was 16 at the time -- pleaded guilty last year and was given a year in custody and two years of supervised probation for his role in the slaying.

Debungee's daughter, Lindsay Mainville, gave an emotional victim impact statement, in which she spoke of the senseless loss of her father.

Debungee lived in Winnipeg for about 25 years, working as a roofer and, most recently, as a furniture mover. He grew up in the small community of Manitou Rapids on the Rainy River First Nation just west of Fort Francis, Ont.

"He was back here in April (2006) and he talked of moving back home," his brother, Elvis, told the Free Press.

"But then he went back to Winnipeg for a visit and never came back."