Victim wanted to make peace

Leticia Fleury was remembered Monday as a peacemaker whose life was cut short by a "pointless act of violence."

The family of Fleury, the 25-year-old mother of two killed early Sunday outside a Saskatoon bar, fought back tears Monday as they recalled the harrowing last moments of her life and struggled to make sense of the tragic circumstances of her death.

Fleury was the designated driver Saturday night and had arrived at Dublin’s Irish Pub and Grill for a friend’s birthday shortly before 2 a.m.

She talked that night about how much she was enjoying herself, posed for photos with her sister and the birthday girl, a close family friend, and went outside 20 minutes after arriving with her sister, Tammy, and a few friends for a cigarette around last call.

"We were just hanging out," Tammy Fleury recalled Monday. "We were just having fun. We were just talking and laughing, like always."

Fleury was remembered by her five older sisters, her brother, Eugene, and numerous close friends as a straight-A student, a budding actress who was in plays with the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company and a "friend to everyone." She is survived by her two children, Aliyah, 6, and Tein, 5.

The large and tight-knit family gathered Monday on the front porch of Leticia’s Confederation Park home, trading stories and memories.

Fleury grew up in Yorkton, but moved to Saskatoon when she was five. She planned to move to Vancouver to study forensics and continue her acting career, Eugene said.

"She was friendly to everyone, she loved her kids and all her nieces and nephews – kids just loved her," Tammy Fleury said. "She was always smiling and happy and always lifted up everyone’s spirits. She didn’t have any enemies. She had a huge heart. She did whatever she could for anybody."

She was to be the maid of honour at her sister Celissa’s upcoming wedding, planning everything from the centrepieces to the decorations at the hall.

"She planned the whole thing," Celissa said. "She was more excited than we were. It was basically like it was her wedding."

She is the innocent victim of a "pointless and random act of violence," Tammy said.

"She was a peacemaker," said Eugene. "She was always like that. She didn’t want to see anyone hurt."

Outside the bar just after 2 a.m., a fight broke out after a man, a stranger to the group, punched a close friend of Leticia’s, several witnesses said. During the brawl, four people were stabbed, including Leticia.

Fleury stepped in the middle of the altercation to stop the fight and was stabbed in the upper right leg, severing a main artery.

Mike Wilkie, a 34-year-old friend trained in CPR, rushed outside, he recounted Monday.

"People were yelling, ‘Ticia got stabbed, Ticia got stabbed,’ " he said. "I knew right away it was bad."

Wilkie applied pressure to the leg, which was gushing blood, while Chastity Desjarlais, a longtime friend of the Fleury family, removed her sweater and wrapped it around the wound, she said.

"I tied it super tight," Desjarlais said. "I thought everything was going to be OK."

Paramedics arrived on the scene within five minutes, Wilkie said, and moved Leticia to the ambulance.

The ambulance didn’t leave for the hospital for "at least 10 to 15 minutes," Wilkie said.

Wilkie and Eugene Fleury followed the ambulance and said it drove slowly and stopped for a long period of time.

"They should’ve been on the way to the hospital," Wilkie said. "I think they should’ve done a better job than what they did."

Eugene Fleury says the family is angered by the delay in getting to the hospital.

"(Leticia’s death) could have been prevented," he said. "That 15 minutes of waiting, that’s precious time. We just want to tell the story to get it out there so it won’t happen again. Maybe this will save someone else’s life."

Charges have been laid against two Saskatoon men in connection with the brawl. No charges have been laid in connection with Fleury’s death.

Mitchell George Matechuck, 19, and Jordan Aaron Smith, 21, appeared Monday in provincial court where they were each charged with two counts of aggravated assault. Police say the charges pertain to the stab wounds suffered by two Kamsack men during the fight. The 28- and 32-year-old men from Kamsack remain in hospital.

Matechuck and Smith – both wearing white, jail-issued coveralls – were remanded. They are scheduled to make their next court appearance on Wednesday.

Matechuck’s mother, Georgina, said neither of the accused had been in trouble with the law before and both are hard working.

"They were just a couple of friends out for a good time," Matechuck said.

Fleury’s mother, Bernice, arrived at the hospital before the ambulance, she said.

When it pulled up, she rushed to her dying daughter.

"I grabbed her hand and she said ‘I can’t breathe,’ " Bernice said. "And that’s the last I saw her."

Bernice pulled out her cellphone Monday to show the last conversation she had with her youngest daughter via text message around 10 p.m.

The two joked and made fun of each other before saying goodbye.

"Going to sleep now. . . love you," Bernice wrote.

"I love you, too, mama," Leticia responded.

"She was so calm and graceful as she was dying," said Rachel Fleury, Leticia’s sister.

"It’s going to be so hard every day without her."