Zachary Gaudette was a 30-year-old Ontario man who had only been in Kelowna four days when he died after a fight outside Cactus Club Feb. 17. His sister Kimberly Gaudette is still waiting for charges to be laid.
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April 13, 2016 - 2:30 PM
KELOWNA - The sister of an Ontario man who died after what police described as an ‘altercation’ outside a local restaurant says although RCMP have video and an admission of guilt, charges are yet to be laid.
Kimberly Gaudette is the older sister of Zachary Gaudette, a 30-year-old Ontario man who had only been in Kelowna four days when he got in a fight outside Cactus Club on Banks Road at around 9 p.m. Feb. 17.
Police are not calling it a homicide but Gaudette says that although it may have been a fight, the man who threw the lethal punch should have done more to help him.
“The police told us the video shows it was one punch and my brother went down,” she says. “The guy didn’t call 9-1-1 or anything. He had a cigarette while my brother was lying there then went inside. He left him like an animal.”
Gaudette says after two months of waiting, her family still doesn't know what happened and is getting worried police aren't taking the death seriously.
"(Police) just keep saying they’re investigating or that they’re waiting on Crown,” she says. “Well are they investigating or is it at the courts waiting? They told me they got the person but he’s got no priors so it’s a dilemma. How is it a dilemma when you have video and he admitted it?"
Const. Jesse O’Donaghey says should the case be ruled a homicide the man could face charges of manslaughter or criminal negligence causing death, but they are still investigating.
Gaudette believes the police have all the information they need and that it’s time for the case to go to trial so her family can start healing.
“I’d like to see this person pay for what he did,” she says. “The fact that he left him and didn’t care, that’s the part that really bothers me.”
Kelowna RCMP list the Gaudette death as unsolved, along with four other confirmed homicides since 2011. Another five homicides are headed to court this summer with suspects in custody.
Questions posed to police about whether or not they have video, a suspect or a confession have not yet been answered.
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