2 dead in fall from west-end balcony

Residents in a west Ottawa apartment building are wondering if the death of two people late Friday is suspicious — something Ottawa Police have yet to address.

“It’s still being investigated,” Sgt. Gary Leach told the Sun Saturday.

Someone called 911 saying they had seen two people falling from a balcony in a high-rise building, near Carlingwood Mall, around 11 p.m.

Paramedics found a man and woman outside 2045 Carling Ave. — both without vital signs — but it’s unclear which floor the pair were on.

A man in his 30s was pronounced dead at the scene.

A woman, 29, was taken to the Civic Hospital in critical condition but later died.

“I’ve never seen dead bodies before lying on the ground,” said resident Tina Bent, who was watching from her fourth floor balcony in the 12-storey building.

“I was terrified and scared … I was up all night.”

Clifford Belanger is retired and lives on the third floor.

He said he went to a dance Friday night and got home around 12:30 a.m., to see eight police cruisers.

On the ground at the rear of the building facing Carling, “they had a sheet there with an arm sticking out,” he said.

Another resident, who didn’t want to be named, said she also saw the man on the ground.

“There was a lot of commotion and everything, there was a lot of banging on the doors,” she said.

“He was dead and had blood all over his face.”

The area, according to residents, was cordoned off with police tape for a few hours.

But by 10 a.m. Saturday, there wasn’t a trace of blood in sight.

Some residents said their air conditioning units are so loud, they slept through the whole thing.