Disturbing details emerge in stabbing death of 14-year-old party-goer

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This article was published 29/10/2019 (1838 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Disturbing details have emerged about the conduct of two teen females alleged to have stabbed to death 14-year-old Jakira Eastman-Moore at a Halloween party Oct. 26.

On Tuesday, the Winnipeg Police Service announced it had charged an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old with second-degree murder and attempted murder.

Under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Free Press is unable to identify the 16-year-old. The Free Press has chosen not to name the 18-year-old, as identifying her could inadvertently identify the co-accused.

The stabbings — which also sent an 18-year-old woman to hospital with wounds — took place at a house party on the 100 block of Kinver Avenue. Police were called to the scene at 10:45 p.m.

In the aftermath, the co-accused are alleged to have taken to social media to boast and joke about the crime.

In one post, published just hours after the attack, the older teen is alleged to have written: “They always said we gon (sic) be dead or end up in prison.”

The next day, a third party said they called one of the teens and recorded the ensuing conversation. The audio from that reported call was posted online.

“Yo, who’s talking then? Who’s talking now? They want to f—king die next?” one of the teens is alleged to have said.

Another photo shared online — a screengrab from a private message conversation — is alleged to show a text chat with one of the teens, in which she says she’s “proud” to have killed Jakira.

At a vigil Tuesday night, Alaya Mcivor, a community organizer, said the co-accused don’t understand how their posts online were further victimizing Jakira’s family.

“The people responsible for taking this young girl’s life feel the need to continue on with their hatred, their acts of violence on social media. Both of them are engaging in their behaviours and advocating violence,” Mcivor said.

“The people responsible… and the people who are engaging in those behaviours and are posting things on their social media handles, really need to understand the hurt that families go through when it comes to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and two-spirits.”

Jakira’s death marked Winnipeg’s 34th homicide of 2019.

Hours later, the city suffered its 35th and 36th homicides, when two men were found dead in a back lane on Ross Avenue and Isabel Street.

“No 14-year-old should be murdered. No 14-year-old life should be taken so violently,” Mcivor said at Tuesday’s vigil.

“We all gather here consistently. It seems to be almost on a bi-weekly basis. I think this really needs to stop, and it needs to stop today with us.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe