Winnipeg police have laid new charges in the stabbing death of a three-year-old toddler.
Police have now laid second-degree murder charges in connection with the stabbing of Hunter Haze Straight Smith, 3, who died in hospital Saturday.
Hunter was stabbed in the neck at his home on Pritchard Avenue on Oct. 30.
Daniel Jensen, 33, was arrested last week and he’s also charged with an earlier assault on the young child’s mother.
Charges were upgraded from attempted murder Wednesday, said police.
Investigators allege Jensen was with the child’s mother, Clarise Smith, at a Main Street bar when the two got into a fight and she was assaulted.
They say he then went to a home in the 300 block of Pritchard Avenue, where the toddler was stabbed multiple times.
Winnipeg police said while the child died last week, it takes time to upgrade charges in these cases.
“While the public has the luxury of being able to say ‘well that seems obvious’ … investigators, we don’t have that luxury,” explained Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Rob Carver earlier this week.
“If people expect us to do this in a way that results in a conviction, we need to do it perfectly.”
-With files from Brittany Greenslade
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