April 6: The day Troy Cowley died

In my own sort of This Was Manitoba-esque type post... It was this day in 2003 that a friend of mine was murdered.

His name was Troy Cowley. Troy worked as a facilities manager at my place of employment at the time. It was an IT business office in downtown Winnipeg, and the nature of Troy's work brought him in contact with most people there at one time or another. He was well very liked in the office, as I'm sure he was outside the office, because of his outgoing nature and perpetual good spirit.

In the evenings, Troy worked as a bouncer in an exchange district nightclub called Lot 115. He was not on-duty on April 6. He was there as a guest, but when a fight broke out on the patio behind the club he went to go help. Shortly after he stepped out of the back door of the club to calm things down he was shot twice in the face.

I had heard something about a shooting at the club, but I didn't know who got killed until I walked into the office the morning of April 7 and saw a colleague crying.

Troy was killed by this person:


Manitoba Warriors gang member Russell Thomas. Russell was, as they say, known to police. For example, in 1999 he was charged with gang and drug-related offences. Convicted only of the drug offences he was sentenced to over 4 years in prison and was on day parole a year later. Other events transpired and by the time of the shooting he was under three separate weapons-related court orders.-cbc-

Maybe the justice system was too inept to keep this turd off the street prior to April 6 2003, but in his conviction of second degree murder for the shooting of Troy, the courts took the unusual step of doubling the minimum time until parole to 20 years. And then one year later they accidentally let him go.

Fortunately they got him back in custody, and as far as I know he is still behind bars. I am pretty sure he is because Gang Life Recordz, "the realist shit on this side of the boarder", is still rapping to "Free Russell Thomas".

But forget about them. On this day I raise a glass to memory of Troy Cowley.