Man, 18, charged with first-degree murder in attack that left Ottawa librarian dead

An 18-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an attack on a 59-year-old librarian in downtown Ottawa last Thursday.

Police made the arrest Sunday afternoon and have charged the suspect with first-degree murder. He is set to appear in court Monday morning.

Ottawa police have identified the suspect as 18-year-old Tyler Hikoalok of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

The victim, Elisabeth Salm, had been working alone at the Christian Science Reading Room at the time of the attack. The centre is part of a network of publicly accessible spaces for study and prayer administered by the Christian Science church which is headquartered in Boston. She was discovered severely injured at the centre at around 10 a.m. and died in hospital Friday afternoon.

This marks the city’s 13th homicide of the year.