VICTORIA -- A 53-year-old man is dead after police say he was assaulted near Duncan Monday.
Mounties were called to a reported assault just before 5 a.m. at a home on Mulaqw Road on Cowichan Tribes land.
North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP officers found a man suffering serious injuries, according to police.
Police administered first aid and the man was taken to hospital but died of his injuries.
Police say that evidence at the scene leads them to believe foul play was involved in his death.
"It's a shock. We lost a cousin," Cowichan Tribes Chief William Seymour told CTV News Vancouver Island. "He grew up playing soccer with me. That's why it's so shocking to me that he's gone now."
The Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit (VIIMCU) has taken over the investigation and is working with local RCMP and the coroner.
Investigators say they believe this is an isolated incident and is not related to the double-homicide in the area on Dec. 24.
"This tragic incident coming so soon after the Christmas Eve tragedy has shocked and saddened the public," Mounties said in a news release Tuesday.
Police are asking anyone with information in the case to come forward.
"Everybody's looking for answers," Seymour said.
