Lethbridge police have charged a 52-year-old man with second-degree murder in an assault that left a woman dead.
A police officer intervened after witnessing an assault while patrolling the 400 block of 6 Avenue South on Saturday, Sept. 16 at about 3:30 p.m.
Police said EMS were called; the suspect was arrested and the woman was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, where she died a short time later.
Sources have identified the victim as Trixie Chief Moon, 48.
A close friend of Moon’s expressed her shock on Monday.
“Absolute shock, because the last time I saw her, it seemed like they were happy; she was happy,” recalled Monica Bourassa. “She always had a smile on her face.”
Rodney Yellow Old Woman, 52, is charged with one count of second-degree murder. He made his first court appearance Monday morning and was remanded into custody. He is next scheduled to appear in court Sept. 28.
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Yellow Old Woman has 10 previous convictions for assault spanning from 1994 to March 2017; two of those include assault causing bodily harm.
“She had just started dating him, I’d say less than a month ago,” Bourassa said.
She said her friend’s death should have never happened and she’s frustrated by what she calls an ongoing issue in First Nation communities.
“This is a social situation,” Bourassa said. “You may believe it does not affect people; it does. It affects a whole community.”
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An autopsy is scheduled in Calgary to confirm the victim’s cause of death.
With files from Global’s Liam Nixon and Erika Tucker