Murderous Landlords
Landlords blame a landlord’s double homicide of his tenants on the Landlord Tenant Board.
Aaron, 28, was an electrician. His fiancee Carissa, 27, was an educational assistant. The couple lived together in a basement apartment in Hamilton Ontario. They approached their landlord, who lived upstairs, with a health and safety concern about mould in their rental unit.
No one knows exactly what was said, but we do know that the landlord drew a firearm and, while the couple tried to flee to safety, running across the lawn to get away from the building, shot them both in the back until they were dead. Then he went back inside, barricaded the door, and, once they arrived, exchanged gunfire with police officers until he also perished.
Observers noted that media coverage involved the use of passive voice similar to that we usually see in news headlines about police shootings, with headlines like “Two tenants, landlord dead following dispute” rather than a far more informative and accurate “landlord murders tenants before dying in shootout with police.” But the facts are undisputed. Who do you think is at fault?
If you’re like me, you believe it’s wrong to resolve disputes with violence. That it’s wrong to shoot an unarmed couple in the back. You see the landlord as a murderer. You also…
