Hamilton police ask for public’s help in homicide probe
CBC News | Posted: January 11, 2014 2:35 PM | Last Updated: January 11, 2014
'Blunt force trauma' cause of death for 57-year-old Ernie Sitter: police
Police are looking for anyone with information on the last hours of a 57-year-old Hamilton man, whose death is now being probed as a homicide.
Ernie Sitter, 57, was found dead on Thursday in his apartment on King Street East at Edgemont, in east Hamilton.
In a Friday news release, police said they had launched a homicide investigation after an autopsy found that Sitter died from blunt force trauma.
The suspected killing is Hamilton's third homicide of the year.
Officers will canvass the neighbourhood this weekend in search of witnesses, police said in the statement.
Anyone with information about Sitter’s death is asked to call Det. Ben Adams at 905-546-3836 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
'He was a good guy'
Agostino Dinardo has been running a barbershop that sits under the building for 57 years. Dinardo told CBC Hamilton on Friday that he’d occasionally see Sitter in the area.
“Sometimes we’d say hi and hello when I see him,” he said. “He was a good guy.”
Dinardo says the apartment doesn't have a history of problems. “It’s a good building,” he said. “They’re nice people. They’re family people. I never have no problem here, myself.”
Police would sometimes be called to the area a few years ago when “young people used to live upstairs,” he said.
“But when you’re in one place for 57 years you see lots of different people. Lots of people – mostly good.”
A small group of neighbours were gathered in the back lot of the apartment Friday morning behind police tape lines, but weren’t ready to talk about the incident.
“I don’t want to talk about my neighbour, no,” one woman said.