Dozens gather at vigil for victim of random, fatal stabbing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/06/2019 (2020 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of people gathered Monday evening at the corner of Sherbrook Street and Sara Avenue to remember the father, brother, son and football coach they lost June 7 to a random, fatal stabbing.

About 75 people stood in a circle near the spot where Robert Christian Donaldson, 51, was stabbed. A few of Donaldson’s family members stood in the centre, including several of his children, holding their arms tightly around each other and wearing white T-shirts with his photo and name in royal blue letters.

Donaldson’s family thanked everyone for coming, and declined to speak to reporters.

“It’s difficult to find words at a time like this,” Indigenous knowledge keeper Charlotte Nolan told the crowd. “If, at any time, any of you need a shoulder, mine is here. It always has been.”

The smell of herbs filled the air as community members performed a smudging ceremony for people who came to remember Donaldson, some with smiles on their faces, others with tears in their eyes. A few wore Valour Patriots football jerseys in tribute to the community centre coach who had mentored them for the past two years.

People from different ends of the city, many of whom had never met before, congregated to mourn Donaldson’s death and to share memories of his life. The sound of drums filled the air and a small group played a deer song, which has a teaching of gentleness and was requested by one of Donaldson’s family members.

“You’re now part of a big family,” Nolan told the group. “We’re not strangers anymore.”

The crowd began to spill out onto the boulevard and side street as more people joined to pay their respects. Many held white and purple flowers, staying long after the vigil ended to place them in piles next to about two dozen tealight candles at the front door of a nearby apartment complex.

The night Donaldson was killed, Winnipeg city police responded to a report of a fight involving several men at the intersection. Officers arrived around 8:45 p.m., and found Donaldson with an upper-body stab wound. They started administering first aid and took Donaldson by ambulance to the hospital, where he later died.

His death marked Winnipeg’s 22nd homicide of 2019.

The next day, police arrested Rodney Byron Williams, 34.

Williams was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of assault with a weapon, and was detained in custody.

Police have asked any witnesses who have not yet spoken to investigators to contact the homicide unit at 204-986-6219.

caitlyn.gowriluk@freepress.mb.ca