ITS NOT FAIR
MUCH LOVE CLIFFTON
ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS
R.I.P
Slaying over girl
Victim tried to avoid fight, mother says
Jason van rassel, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, February 02, 2008
An offhand remark about a girl may have cost Clifton Anderson his life, says his family.
The 17-year-old was hanging out at a friend's house Monday night when another man -- a friend of a friend he'd only met that night -- took exception to a comment he made.
"Just because Clifton said something about a girl -- that's why he was stabbed," his mother Debbie Anderson said Friday.
Clifton Anderson, Calgary's latest homicide victim.
Clifton Anderson, Calgary's latest homicide victim.
Courtesy, family
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Debbie said her son deliberately delayed leaving the friend's house after the other man's departure so he could avoid a confrontation.
But at 3:15 a.m. Tuesday, a passerby asked staff at a convenience store a few blocks away to call 911 to tend to a man passed out near 25th Avenue and 5th Street N.W.
It was Clifton.
The popular student at Sir William Van Horne High School had been fatally stabbed.
In the hours that followed, police identified a suspect and began a search that culminated with the arrest of a man seated on a flight bound for Montreal early Thursday.
Records from Laval, outside Montreal, show the man received a jail sentence last year for trafficking cocaine and is currently on probation.
In a Montreal court in 2006, he pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon and received three years probation.
The man is now charged with first-degree murder, which the Criminal Code defines as a killing that is planned and deliberate.
Investigators wouldn't discuss the motive behind the killing, but Staff Sgt. Kevin Forsen made it clear Clifton was an innocent victim.
"This was not gang-related, it was not drug-related, and in no way did Mr. Anderson do anything to cause this to happen," Forsen said Friday.
Although Forsen wouldn't disclose details of the case, Herald sources corroborated the family's account.
That the killing allegedly happened over something so inconsequential prompted Clifton's mother to make an emotional plea.
"I just want these young people who walk around with knives and weapons to think about what they're doing," she said, adding the crime is also tragic for the suspect's family.
"Now, two people's lives are gone."
Relatives said Clifton had some trouble adjusting to life in Calgary after his family moved here from Edmonton, but was coming into his own.
Debbie recalled answering a recent phone call from the school, fearing it would be about Clifton skipping class or missing assignments.
"They said, 'Good news, Mrs. Anderson: Clifton's coming to class, he's on the basketball team . . . he's making an honest effort,' " she said.
As they sat in Debbie's living room Friday, relatives passed around a picture of Clifton seated on a couch with a crowd of young nieces, nephews and cousins.
He was a trusted babysitter and doted on the children, they said.
"That picture exemplifies what he was as a person," his uncle, Donald Philip, said.
Randy Osei, 20, appeared in provincial court Friday and was remanded in custody pending a court appearance later this month.
"Obviously, he's concerned about this," his lawyer, Balfour Der, said of the first-degree murder charge.
"It doesn't get any more serious than that," he said.
