Fsha Tehkle, 36, of Montreal, faces first-degree murder charges in what police described as a femicide of Brkti Berhe, 36, of Ottawa.
Ottawa police have charged a man with first-degree murder after the brutal daytime killing of a mother in a park on Thursday.
Police said Friday that 36-year-old Fsha Tehkle, of Montreal, faces first-degree murder charges in what police described as a femicide. He’s accused of killing Brkti Berhe, 36, of Ottawa.
An eyewitness to Thursday’s attack in Paul Landry Park says she’ll never forget the look in Behre’s eyes as she lay dying in the grass.
“I’ll never forget her eyes: Her eyes told the truth,” said the woman.
The woman gave a statement to police after the incident. She remains deeply shaken and asked not be identified.
The woman said she had just returned from a shopping trip, and was putting some old boxes into her car, when she heard “hysterical screaming” coming from the direction of the park, just south of where she was loading her car on Uplands Drive.
She didn’t have her glasses on, and initially thought the scene she was witnessing involved a man, beating a dog into submission after some kind of attack. “I was going to rescue the dog,” she said. “Who imagines a murder?”
As she ran toward the scene, the woman, 55, saw a woman and a young girl flee the park. As she moved closer, she was horrified to discover it was not a dog under attack, but a woman. “I go, ‘What are you doing?’” she said. The man tossed Behre aside, the woman said, and fled as she approached the scene.
The woman saw a stroller, and checked to make sure the child was OK, then tried to calm another screaming woman, before turning to Berhe, who was on the ground.
Berhe’s eyes were open, but not comprehending. She saw her chest move as she took in air.
“It’s OK, you’re safe now,” the woman told Behre, “Your babies are safe, so don’t worry. They’re OK.”
Behre took another breath, and died, she said. The woman and another bystander prayed over her body while waiting for police to arrive.
The woman said another woman took the child from the stroller to care for him, and three men, who chased the assailant’s car, told her they had pictures of his vehicle.
The police arrived moments later.
The woman said she’s having a hard time because she’s still grieving her own mother, who died in a car accident two months ago. “I kind of cry on and off,” she said. “I can’t imagine what those poor children are going through. I know how it was for me to wake up and not be able to call my mom anymore.
“I just hope her family gets the answers they need because it’s such a tragic, tragic loss.”
“Tehkle had a domestic relationship with a family member of the victim,” police said. “This tragic event is a femicide.”
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, the police said. The Ottawa Police Service also builds on the definition recommended by community partners as “the misogynist killing of women and girls because of their gender, overwhelmingly committed by men.”
Tekhle appeared in court Friday afternoon by video from the courthouse cellblock, wearing a grey sweatshirt and a short beard. He spoke to the court through his defence lawyer, Alan Brass, who said his client does not understand English and speaks Tigrinya, the language of Eritrea.
Tekhle also speaks some Hebrew, and Brass said he was able to communicate with Tekhle and translate the remand conditions for the court.
Tekhle was remanded into custody and instructed to avoid all communication with a list of 18 people, including family members of the victim and potential witnesses.
Brass requested, and was granted a standard publication ban on the hearing.
“We await disclosure (of Crown evidence) in order to mount a full and complete defence,” Brass said when reached for comment Friday.
Another man reportedly ran after the car to photograph its licence plate.
Another person protected the victim’s children while a woman tended to the dying mother, telling her: “Your children are OK, your children are safe.”
With files from Aedan Helmer
More to come…