SEPTEMBER
Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporters look back on the stories from last year that affected Saskatchewan the most.
CHILD DROWNS NEAR SCHOOL
Family members of a five-yearold who drowned in a retention pond near Saskatoon’s Ecole Dundonald School identified the youngster as Ahmedsadiq Elmmi.
The boy, who was born in Prince Albert, had transferred from the Prince Albert Public School division earlier this year. In an interview with the StarPhoenix, his father, Hussein Elmmi, described the boy as a joyful child who “was full of life.”
“It’s a very difficult time. I don’t have any adjective that will describe what happened to me.”
A member of Saskatoon’s Somali community, Elmmi said his wife moved to Prince Albert in 2000 and he joined her in 2011.
Saskatoon Public Schools director of education Barry MacDougall confirmed the boy was found in the pond. “There isn’t anything worse that can happen,” he told reporters.
MacDougall said senior administrators and the Dundonald principal joined family members at the hospital.
There is no fence around the schoolyard or the pond, which is about 100 metres away from Dundonald School.
Angela Gardiner, the city’s acting director of transportation and utilities, said the city would work with the school division on what steps to take regarding the retention pond, noting the city has more than 100 unfenced water features.
MOTHER AND SON FIND A HOME
It was the early birthday present Mary-Ann McLeod dreamt about, but never quite imagined she would receive.
Five days after she and her son, Jonathan, were forced to start sleeping on the street after being evicted from a wretched apartment on Saskatoon’s west side, a local affordable housing organization and a Calgarybased real estate company teamed up to provide them with a warm apartment and one month’s free rent.
“I’m very happy. I can live peacefully and not have to worry about anything else,” Mary-Ann said moments after she and Jonathan first saw the Avenue X South apartment. Representatives from the Lighthouse Supported Living — funded by the Saskatchewan Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) — and Mainstreet Equity Corp. planned to fill it with basic furniture, bedding, linens and clothing.
The McLeods were evicted from their apartment on Avenue F South, where they slept on the floor wrapped in blankets, after health inspectors deemed it unfit for human habitation.
SHOTS EXCHANGED DOWNTOWN
When a suspicious-acting man fired a shot at Saskatoon police officers after refusing to be taken peacefully into custody, officers at the scene returned fire and pursued him on foot, the city’s acting police chief said.
Since the man had a firearm and “certainly this individual posed a significant threat to the public as well as our officers … there’s no option to just stay there and let him go,” acting Chief Mark Chatterbok said about 24 hours after officers were involved in the incident.
The initial contact with the man consisted of dialogue and trying to take him into custody, “but the commands were not followed at that time … The incident happened very quickly,” he said.
Witnesses described seeing police with guns drawn chasing a man down Fourth Avenue South before the pursuit continued left onto 20th Street East toward Spadina Crescent. One woman said the man threw something that “crackled” during the commotion and then ran, at which point she believed police fired at him. The woman said she heard as many as four gunshots fired by police.
The suspect was caught after sustaining a non-life threatening gunshot wound and injuries consistent with dog bites, police said.