Neighbors are reaching out to help the family of an Ottawa stabbing victim

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Residents of a neighborhood where a mother of four was fatally shot on a playground Thursday are devastated and angry, the head of a community association said Saturday.

But they also want to help.

“There has been an outpouring of offers to help the family,” said Hunt Club Community Association President Audrey Belanger. As she spoke, residents continued to lay flowers at the memorial, which also featured signs and stuffed animals near the playground where Brkti Berhe was shot Thursday morning.

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The association collects donations to help the woman’s family. “This is not the richest part of our district. We want to support the family,” Belanger said.

Bere’s two older children attend a nearby Catholic school. Bélanger said some parents with children at the school gathered on the playground Friday night and talked about how hard it was for them all to watch what the Bere children — their friends and classmates — were going through.

Eyewitnesses said that 36-year-old Berhe was fatally wounded by a man who jumped out of the car and attacked her with a knife. Bystanders comforted Berhe as she died while others tended to her two younger children while three men chased the attacker’s car and took pictures of it.

Police called the act heroic and said it helped make her quick arrest on Highway 417 near Casselman, east of Ottawa, shortly after the attack.

36-year-old Fsha Tehle is charged with first-degree murder. Police said he had a domestic relationship with a member of the victim’s family and believed he was returning to Montreal when he was arrested.

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On Saturday, despite the cold wind, area residents continued to stop by the park to pay their respects and leave flowers. Children were playing nearby.

Karlis Draper said she was driving in the area around 11:30 a.m. Thursday, shortly after the shooting. She watched as the policeman covered Berhe’s body with a blanket.

“There was a guy looking at the body and another woman was holding her head,” Draper said. I’m just so sad and I hope justice is served.”

An on-site vigil is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. on the Ward Coun River. Riley Brockington said it was organized to help members of the community heal and provide support if needed, especially for those who were directly involved or who assisted at the scene.

“It’s really for the community to come together and mobilize,” Brockington said.

Information will be available on how people who may need it can get professional help to cope with trauma, he said.

“The fact that this happened in a well-visited and beloved park that families use adds to the horror of this event,” Brockington said. “The violent nature of the incident only adds to the community’s response, including an outpouring of grief, leaving flowers and an outpouring of offers of help from people who don’t know the family but want to do their part to make things better.”

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Several residents of the area choked when talking about the injuries.

“What happened in the children’s park. It breaks my heart,” said neighbor Lena Gosselin. “A couple of years ago during the pandemic, I was here with my granddaughter every day and I thought how sad it was that the children had to witness this. This should not happen in our country.”

Maria McRae, who used to be a longtime councilwoman in the area and still lives nearby, said she was out for a walk Thursday and came across police cars and emergency responders in the park.

“When we found out what happened, there are no words to describe how terrible we felt. It’s such a terrible tragedy,” McRae said.

She said she met a young man on the trails behind the park who had just witnessed the scene and was so moved that he needed to talk about it. According to her, people in the neighborhood were devastated and traumatized by stab wounds.

McRae and others who came to the park Saturday said they were glad police called Berhe’s killing 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 used the term.

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“That’s an apt word,” McRae said. “As a society, we have to do better. I think it’s helpful to talk about it, and having the right word to describe it is helpful. We must talk about femicide. Now is the year 2024. We have a long way to go.”

Deputy Police Chief Trish Ferguson wrote on social media platform X: “Another horrific murder of a woman in Canada’s capital because she is a woman. Femicide and violence against women is an epidemic in Canada. Shameful.”

Bélanger, a spokeswoman for the community association, said she also hears anger from residents about the issue of femicide.

“I hope there will be a discussion about femicide,” she said. “I think the residents did everything they could to support Berhe (at the scene) and the family. Now the community wants to know what else will be done at the highest level. It feels out of place in 2024.”

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