A Montreal man is charged with first-degree homicide in connection to the stabbing demise of a lady at a park in Ottawa’s south finish on Thursday.
The Ottawa Police Service calls the demise a femicide, saying the accused was in a home relationship with a member of the family of the sufferer.
Emergency crews responded to a name for a stabbing at Paul Landry Park on Uplands Drive, between Paul Anka Drive and Bennett Avenue, at 11:25 a.m. Thursday. The sufferer died from her accidents.
Police recognized the sufferer as Brkti Berhe, 36, of Ottawa. She was a spouse and a mom of 4 youngsters.
Medhanie Efter, a household good friend, stated Berhe has been in Canada for between two and three years, after arriving as a refugee from Israel. Efter sponsored the household.
“She is my good friend’s spouse, not simply good friend, she’s household. She was so good, and she or he (takes) care her husband and her youngsters… It’s extremely laborious, very laborious,” Efter stated. “He (Berhe’s husband) is my greatest good friend. And they’re my household and mates.”
On Friday, police introduced Fsha Tekhle, 36, of Montreal is going through a cost of first-degree homicide.
“Tekhle had a domestic relationship with a family member of the victim, Brkti Berhe,” police stated. “This tragic event is a femicide.”
Police say two of Berhe’s youngsters had been together with her on the park. They had been taken care of by police and bystanders on the scene and transported to hospital as a precaution.
“A femicide is generally defined as ‘the killing of women and girls because of their gender’ often driven by stereotyped gender roles, discrimination towards women and girls or unequal power relations between women and men,” police stated in a press release.
“The Ottawa Police Service additionally builds on the definition advisable by our VAW neighborhood companions as ‘the misogynist killing of ladies and ladies due to their gender, overwhelmingly dedicated by males.'”
The suspect was arrested on Freeway 417 within the Casselman space early Thursday afternoon.
“The officers on scene were able to run the plate and it came back to an address in Montreal,” Deputy Chief Trish Ferguson advised reporters Friday afternoon.
“They determined that he was likely travelling back to Montreal …. with the help of the public who were at the scene, we were able to arrest him so quickly.”
Ferguson stated the suspect was not beforehand identified to the Ottawa Police Service.
Yamikani Msosa, govt director of the Ottawa Coalition to Finish Violence Towards Ladies tells Ontario Chronicle Ottawa that femicide can embody issues apart from intimate companion violence.
“Femicide may additionally embody a neighborhood member attacking a member of the family that is a lady to get again at them. They usually particularly goal that member of the family as a result of she’s a lady and since they know that that may have an effect on the male figures inside the household and ship a transparent message. It is the truth that once we take into consideration femicide, it is cultural in that it is a part of each tradition,” Msosa stated.
“I feel that always we consider femicide as related to solely individuals which are intimately, romantically related, nevertheless it may very well be a neighborhood member, it may very well be a member of the family. It may very well be additionally a stranger, however extra probably than not, we all know 90 per cent of the time it’s somebody that’s related to the sufferer and the one that has been killed and murdered.”
Coun. Riley Brockington says the South-East Ottawa Group Well being Hub deployed trauma professionals into the neighborhood Friday afternoon.
Yellow police tape blocked a piece of the park, sidewalk and road Thursday afternoon, and several other police cruisers had been parked on the scene. A stroller may very well be seen behind the police tape.
“It was a really robust scene,” stated Det. Chris Benson on Thursday. “Center of the day, residential space, a number of households, younger youngsters out and about, it is a good day. Extraordinarily troublesome scene for each the residents and the primary responders. The investigation is constant. There are nonetheless a number of issues that should be accomplished and that may go on for a while.”
That is the twenty second murder of 2024 in Ottawa.
— With information from Ontario Chronicle Ottawa’s Kimberley Fowler
