‘A tragedy to us all’: dozens of mourners join slain sisters’ family at vigil

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This article was published 28/11/2023 (703 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The grieving family of two Indigenous sisters killed in a weekend mass shooting called for justice Tuesday, while dozens of mourners offered traditional prayers to the four victims at a nighttime vigil.

Relatives of Crystal Beardy, 34, and Stephanie Beardy, 33, wept, hugged and placed candles next to a sacred fire as a group performed drum songs.

“This is a tragedy to us all,” the sisters’s tearful aunt, Roberta Owen, told reporters. “It’s a huge loss in our family — two daughters in one. They didn’t deserve this.”

While they await more information about what happened, the Beardy family is making arrangements to bury the sisters side by side in a Winnipeg cemetery.

The siblings and two men — Melelek Leseri Lesikel, 29, and Dylan Maxwell Lavallee, 41 — died after they were shot inside a home on Langside Street in West Broadway early Sunday morning. A 55-year-old man was critically injured.

Some of Lavallee’s loved ones also attended the vigil, which was hosted by family resource organization Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata at King Street and Jarvis Avenue in the North End.

Police had not announced any arrests as of Tuesday night nor had they explained what led up to the quadruple homicide.

The fact that the killer or killers had not yet been caught weighed heavily on the Beardy family.

“My sister was scared to come here,” said Owen, referring to the sisters’s mother, Beverly Beardy, who was “numb” with the grief. “I hope justice is brought forward for all the families.”

Several uniformed police officers watched the vigil from a distance.

The Beardy sisters were from Lake St. Martin First Nation, about 250 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Crystal lived in Winnipeg, while Stephanie recently moved back to Lake St. Martin and was visiting the city.

The sisters were close and had two children each, who are devastated, said Owen.

She urged people to contact the Winnipeg Police Service or Crime Stoppers with tips about killings or the person or people responsible.

“If anybody knows anything at all, we just hope somebody has a heart,” said Owen, who was joined by members of Lake St. Martin’s council when she spoke to reporters. “We pray that somebody comes forward with information.”

The Beardy family was among approximately 3,000 Lake St. Martin residents who were forced to leave their homes when the community flooded in 2011.

The flood has had a devastating impact on residents. Some who had to move to Winnipeg died tragically. Some still do not have homes to return to.

Coun. Brad Beardy, a distant relative, said community members are raising funds to support the family. Crystal and Stephanie’s mother works in the band office.

“We’ve been through a lot in Lake St. Martin, being displaced,” he said.

During the vigil, Indigenous leaders and fellow mourners, including loved ones of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, called for an end to violence.

Similar vigils have been held in the last 12 months to mourn people, mostly women, whose lives have been tragically cut short.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Cathy Merrick said the community has been through a “horrific time.”

“That shouldn’t be,” she told the gathering. “We need to be able to love and respect each other.”

The community fire was held to show support for the families and offer a sacred space to anyone affected by the incident, said Angela Lavallee, Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata’s sacred connections co-ordinator.

“Tonight is the time to come together and honour the spirits and relatives of everybody who’s been impacted by what has happened,” she told the Free Press before the vigil began.

The mass shooting’s impact has been far-reaching. It has been an “activation of trauma” even for people who did not know those who died and some of those experiencing intergenerational trauma, said Lavallee.

“This type of experience that has happened, it impacts us in a way that opens up wounds that maybe were just healing,” she said.

November has been a particularly violent month in Winnipeg, accounting for about a quarter of all homicides so far in 2023.

Including Sunday’s shooting, 10 people have been killed in seven incidents this month. Of those, at least six victims were shot to death.

The total number of homicide victims so far in 2023 is 38, after a record 53 slayings in 2022 pushed Winnipeg’s violent-crime severity to its highest level since 2009.

The previous annual record was 44, set in 2019.

This year, police have made arrests in about two-thirds of the 38 killings in Winnipeg.

Sunday’s shooting is 2023’s only homicide with multiple victims.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca