Mike on Crime

By Nick Martin
Winnipeg Free Press

Mike Woloshyn should have been on the ice this afternoon for the Lord Selkirk Royals’ first post-Christmas hockey practice.

Instead, his teammates from Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School will play a shinny game in memory of the 16-year-old, stabbed to death early Tuesday at a New Year’s Eve party.

Selkirk RCMP have charged a 17-year-old male with second-degree murder.

“To my knowledge, he (Mike Woloshyn) did not know him,” his grieving father, Darryl Woloshyn, said from the family home in Lockport Wednesday. He could not recall the accused ever coming to their home.

Darryl Woloshyn said his son’s funeral will be held Monday morning, the first day of school after the Christmas break, at the Selkirk Recreation Centre at 11 a.m. His son’s closest friends will act as pallbearers.

“We’re setting up 650 seats on the floor. The rink holds 1,500 beyond that,” he said.

Mike Woloshyn was a star hockey player and a member of the varsity basketball team at Lord Selkirk high school.

Wednesday night, a vigil was held in his honour at an outdoor hockey rink outside the arena. More than 150 people, mostly teenagers, attended.

The vigil had a shrine with a large portrait of Woloshyn set up, and hockey sticks put into the snow with a hockey jersey draped over top. The jersey said Mike on the back with his No. 5.

Signs were made bearing such words as, “You were my boy. You will always be my boy. I love you,” and “You will always be with us.”

Darryl Woloshyn said he was still learning details of his son’s death from the RCMP, and had not yet spoken to the family friends at whose home the fateful party was held. The accused was believed to have crashed the party, and allegedly stabbed Mike Woloshyn after being asked to leave.

Darryl Woloshyn did not know whether the owners of the home, Jack and Rose Walsh, had been aware there would be a party held by their 17-year-old son while they were flying to Germany to watch an older son play professional hockey.

Selkirk RCMP continue to investigate the incident, with assistance from the Winnipeg RCMP serious crime and major crime units, said RCMP Cpl. Brian Edmunds.

Police had little to say Wednesday about how many young people were at the party, or how many uninvited guests crashed it.

Hundreds of students have joined a Facebook site memorializing the popular Grade 11 student.

Some students briefly created a second group on the social networking website Wednesday, in which they posted the name and photo of a teenager they believe to be the youth arrested and charged. That site was removed by mid-afternoon.

Sources said the youth charged by police attended Lord Selkirk high school until moving around this time a year ago. The youth identifies himself on Facebook as a member of the class of 2007 at a high school in Winnipeg.

Lord Selkirk School Division will have its crisis response team at the high school next week when classes resume, superintendent Gail Bagnall said Wednesday.

“This student, Mike Woloshyn, was an extremely popular student, very outgoing,” Bagnall said.

Crisis response teams of psychologists, social workers, and counsellors move into a school immediately following a tragedy, meeting with any children or staff who need to talk.

“There will be a counsellor at (hockey) practice,” Bagnall said. “We need to have that time with the coaches and team. They need the time.

“He was energetic and enthusiastic, a very aggressive player. He would want the team to carry on,” she said.

Students and staff are scattered over the holidays, and some may be unaware of what has happened, she said, adding that the division decided against opening the school up early.

The victim, the student hosting the party, the accused — “three families have been thrown into a horrible situation,” Bagnall said.
“Shocking — the students involved are really good kids. It really is a community tragedy — it involves so many people,” Bagnall said. “For a lot of students, this is a real reality check. They think it can’t happen to them.”