“That this happened in a children’s park. It breaks my heart.”
Residents of the neighbourhood where a mother of four was fatally stabbed in a playground Thursday are devastated and angry, the head of the community association said Saturday.
But they are also anxious to help.
“There has been an outpouring of offers to help the family,” Hunt Club Community Association president Audrey Bélanger said. As she spoke, residents continued to lay flowers at the memorial that also included signs and stuffed animals beside the playground where Brkti Berhe was stabbed Thursday morning.
The association is collecting donations to help the woman’s family. “This isn’t the wealthiest part of our neighbourhood. We want to support the family,” Bélanger said.
The two older children of Berhe attend a nearby Catholic school. Bélanger said some parents with children at the school gathered at the playground Friday night and talked about how difficult it had been for all of them to watch what Berhe’s children — and their friends and classmates — were going through.
Eyewitnesses said the 36-year-old Berhe was fatally stabbed by a man who had leapt from a car and attacked her with a knife. Bystanders comforted Berhe as she died, while others cared for her two younger children and three men chased the assailant’s car and took pictures of it.
Police called those actions heroic and said it helped them make a quick arrest on Highway 417 near Casselman, east of Ottawa, shortly after the attack.
Fsha Tekhle, 36, has been charged with first-degree murder. Police said he had a domestic relationship with a family member of the victim and believed he was returning to Montreal when he was arrested.
Evening Update
On Saturday, despite a cold wind, area residents continued to stop at the park to pay their respects and to leave flowers. Children played nearby.
Carlys Draper said she had been driving by the area Thursday around 11:30 a.m., shortly after the stabbing. She watched a police officer drape a blanket over Berhe’s body.
“There was a guy staring at the body and another woman holding her head,” Draper said. I am just so sad and hope that justice is done.”
A vigil at the site is planned for Tuesday at 6 p.m. River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington said it had been organized to help members of the community heal and to provide support if needed, particularly for those who were directly involved or who assisted at the scene.
“It is really meant for the community to come together and draw strength,” Brockington said.
He said information about how people who might need it could receive professional help dealing with the trauma would be available.
“The fact that this took place in a well-visited and well-loved park that is enjoyed by families further adds to the horror of this event,” Brockington said. “The violent nature of the incident just compounds the community’s reaction, including an outpouring of grief, leaving flowers and an outpouring of offers to help from people who don’t know the family but want to contribute to make this better.”
Several area residents choked up as they talked about the stabbing.
“That this happened in a children’s park. It breaks my heart,” neighbor Lina Gosselin said. “I was here with my granddaughter every single day a couple of years ago during the pandemic, and I thought how sad this is that children witnessed this. That shouldn’t happen in our country.”
Maria McRae, who had previously been a long-time city councilor for the area and still lives nearby, said she was out for a walk Thursday and came across police cars and emergency responders at the park.
“When we found out what happened there are no words to describe how awful we felt. It is such a terrible tragedy,” McRae said.
She said she met a young man along the trails behind the park who had just witnessed the scene and was so shaken that he needed to talk about it. Around the neighbourhood, she said, people were devastated and traumatized by the stabbing.
McRae and others who came by the park Saturday said they were glad police have labelled the killing of Berhe a femicide to draw more attention to the killing of women because of their gender. It was the second time in three months that the Ottawa Police Service had used that term.
“It is an appropriate word,” McRae said. “As a society, we have to do better. I think talking about it is helpful, and having a proper word to describe it is helpful. We have to talk about femicide. It is 2024. We have got a long way to go.”
Deputy Police Chief Trish Ferguson posted on the social media platform X: “Another horrific murder of a woman in the capital of Canada because she is a woman. Femicide and Violence against Women is an epidemic in Canada. Shameful.”
Bélanger, of the community association, said she was also hearing anger from residents about the issue of femicide.
“I hope there is a discussion on femicide,” she said. “I think the residents have done everything they could heroically to support Berhe (at the scene) and the family. Now the community wants to know what else is going to be done at a higher level. It feels like it doesn’t belong in 2024.”
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