Homeless Inuit teen arrested in killing
Beating, sexual assault of librarian
OTTAWA • Ottawa police have arrested a homeless man who is believed to have known his alleged victim in the fatal daytime attack on Christian Science librarian Elisabeth Salm.
Tyler Hikoalok, 18, was arrested Sunday afternoon. Salm’s family looked on as he appeared in court Monday by video link to be formally charged with first-degree murder for the brutal slaying and sexual assault, which put the city on edge days ago.
Salm, 59, was found bloodied, beaten unconscious and half-naked inside the office of the drop-in space around 12:30 p.m. Thursday. She was taken to hospital and kept on life support before dying Friday. It was the city’s 13th homicide of the year.
Lauren Young, brother of Salm’s husband, Lyle Young, read a statement outside the courthouse.
“Elisabeth’s family thanks the many people who have expresses support toward us these last few days,” Lauren Young said.
Hikoalok, from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, is a member of the hip hop collective Tr1be Music, which runs a studio program to “to help Indigenous artists break into the music industry.”
The group participated in a tour of Ottawa-Carleton District School Board schools in April, where Hikoalok went into area schools speaking to students and performing.
He raps as “Ty Millz.” According to the group’s website, the Inuit man was put into foster care and taken from his community at the age of nine.
“Music has since then been his therapy,” his biography says. Hikoalok uses “instrumentals as a way to express himself (and) as a way to stay motivated.”
The site credits a turn to making music and beats, which he taught himself, with saving his life. “Tyler’s ambition is to set up a similar music program for youth in his hometown.”
It was not immediately known if Hikoalok has a criminal record.
According to details of the April schools tour, members of the collective were “sharing their stories and providing education through music.
“These young artists are making a name for themselves and strive to be positive role models for the next generation. Not only are they performing artists, but they make their own beats, produce their own records, and are entrepreneurs.”
The tour — called the “INDIGENIZE High School Tour” — aimed to “help educate students on Indigenous topics with music and culture as their response towards Reconciliation.”
The group lists a townhouse in southwest Ottawa as its address on Facebook. It’s not known whether Hikoalok had stayed at the address.
“Tyler right now is obviously a little bit stressed, confused about what has happened within the last 24 hours,” his lawyer Michael Smith said outside the courthouse. “That’s as much I can say about how he’s feeling right about now.”
Salm had been a librarian at the centre since 2011, a job where volunteers are typically alone and people from all walks of life — Christians, students, homeless, curious passersby — can drop in.
Salm grew up in Ottawa, attending Merivale High School before she studied geology at Carleton University, graduating in 1982. In recent years she sang as a soprano in the Ottawa Brahms Choir and updated its website, but filled much of her time in the reading space. She is survived by her husband, siblings, extended family and the Christian Scientist community in Ottawa.