Shopkeeper charged with manslaughter

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This article was published 14/05/2010 (5622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The mother of a woman who was allegedly beaten by a local shopkeeper says she was determined to get justice for her daughter.

Thursday, she got her wish after the shopkeeper was charged with manslaughter in connection with a case that made national headlines last fall.

Geraldine Beardy, 29, died last September after police say she was beaten at Okay Groceries at the corner of Sherbrook Street and Alexander Avenue. Police said she was hit in the upper body with a weapon and fled to a nearby home. She died from her injuries five days later in hospital.

At the time, police said surveillance video showed the woman shoplifting from the store. Reports suggested Beardy may have stolen a can of Klik luncheon meat.

Beardy’s mother, Louise Keno, said earlier this week she wanted justice for her daughter but she was still wrestling with the death.

"Sometimes, when I get that mad feeling or the angry feeling about him, I told myself, I’m not going to let him go like that," she said Wednesday. "He has to be arrested."

Wednesday, that shopkeeper, Kwang Soo Kim, 62, turned himself in to police. He has since been released and is facing manslaughter charges.

The shopkeeper is originally from Korea and his grasp of English is poor, but he indicated to the Free Press earlier this year he was perturbed by the allegations.

"This is a personal tragedy (for him)," said Evan Roitenberg, Kim’s lawyer.

Kim originally faced a charge of aggravated assault but that charge was never formally laid. In February, police said their homicide unit was investigating new information about the case.

Northern Grand Chief David Harper, who is from Garden Hill First Nation and is Beardy’s cousin, said the community always wanted police to consider manslaughter over assault charges.

"We’re happy Winnipeg police continued to investigate," said Harper. "No one deserves to be killed for a can of Klik."

Beardy, who was in Winnipeg from Garden Hill for medical treatment, died almost two weeks after witnessing another tragedy that shocked Winnipeg last fall — the second time the man dubbed the Homeless Hero, Faron Hall, tried to thwart an accidental drowning in the Red River.

Beardy, her boyfriend Chris Harper and her cousin were drinking wine with Hall near the Norwood Bridge when Beardy’s cousin slid into the river. Harper jumped in to rescue her but neither could swim. That’s when Hall took action, swimming out to save Beardy’s cousin.

But, he couldn’t grab Harper, who slipped under the surface and whose body was recovered later that night.

Two weeks later, when Hall heard about Beardy’s sudden death, he called her "the nicest, caring person."

"After Chris died she was lost," Hall said last fall. "They came in from Garden Hill. And you know what? The city ate ’em up. That’s what happened."

Keno is caring for Beardy’s two children in Garden Hill and said she’s awaiting the first anniversary of Beardy’s death.

Harper said Beardy’s death will be hard to explain to her children.

 

— With files from staff and wire

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.caw