Person found dead inside tent at Kingston's Belle Park
3rd reported death of unhoused person in region this month
Kingston police say a person was found dead inside a tent Thursday evening — the third reported death of an unhoused person this month in the region.
According to a police spokesperson, officers responded to the area of Belle Park at about 7 p.m. for reports of a deceased person.
Police have not released the person's identity. Ontario's chief coroner's office is investigating with police assisting.
In an emailed statement, Const. Anthony Colangeli said there's no risk to public safety.
Police tape was wrapped around a wooded section of the park Friday morning, surrounding what appeared to be a collapsed tent and a tarp.
Personal belongings could be seen scattered around the area, some of which were in a green shopping cart.
CBC spoke with a man staying in a makeshift shelter nearby and has agreed not to publish his name due to personal safety concerns.
He said the person staying in the tent now ringed with police tape, was a man who arrived a few weeks ago, describing him as a "quiet, gentle" individual who kept to himself.
Staff at the Integrated Care Hub (ICH), a shelter that also houses a supervised injection site nearby, had a similar impression.
Other encampment residents alerted them about the death, according to Gilles Charette, executive director of Trellis HIV & Community Care, one of the organizations that runs the hub.
The person who died was "unknown to ICH staff was not known to have accessed ICH services," he wrote in an email.
A spokesperson for the County of Frontenac said a paramedic was on duty at the hub Thursday night and responded to the call, but found the person deceased, so didn't treat them or transport them to hospital.
The encampment resident CBC spoke with compared what happened to a "scary movie."
"Last night, it was a lot of crying," he said.
The death in Belle Park happened the same day a man was found by a friend at a homeless encampment near Robert-Guertin Centre in Gatineau, Que.
The man in Gatineau was pronounced dead at the scene and the death remains under investigation.
Earlier this month, 67-year-old Diane Hebert was also found dead inside her tent in Cornwall, Ont.
With files from Dan Taekema