1st-degree murder charge for Ottawa park stabbing

A man accused of stabbing and killing a woman in front of her kids in an Ottawa park Thursday morning has been charged with first-degree murder. City police have labelled it a femicide.

In a news release, Ottawa police said 36-year-old Brkti Berhe of Ottawa was attacked around 11:30 a.m. near the intersection of Uplands and Paul Anka drives, south of the core and near the city's international airport.

During a media availability Friday, deputy police chief Trish Ferguson confirmed that Brkti Berhe was a mother of four, two of whom were with her when she was attacked. 

She died at Paul Landry Park, sources told CBC. Paramedics told CBC the woman's children were uninjured.

Witnesses at the scene "showed incredible compassion in trying to protect the young children at the scene," Ferguson noted, saying both children were taken to CHEO as "a precaution."

Police said the male suspect fled in a vehicle and was arrested near exit 66 on Highway 417 in Casselman, Ont., about 50 kilometres east of the park.

On Friday, Ottawa police said 36-year-old Fsha Tekhle from Montreal is facing a first-degree murder charge for Berhe's death.

Ferguson said the accused "had a domestic relationship with a family member of Brkti's" and that the killing was a femicide, which is when a woman or girl is killed because of their gender.

This is the second homicide in Ottawa to be labelled a femicide. Ferguson said Ottawa police have worked with community partners to adopt the term.

"[Femicide] really is about stereotypical gender roles, discrimination towards women," she said.

"I know traditionally we would all jump straight to the conclusion that they must be in an intimate relationship, but that's not always the case, and this is one of those matters."

Facebook post

Community members and sources have confirmed that images on a Facebook account depict the accused, Fsha Tekhle.

The account, which reporters at CBC/Radio-Canada have seen, uses a different name.

Minutes after the killing Thursday, the account posted one word in Amharic, an Ethiopian Semitic language.

Translated to English, the word means "Done."

The post was timestamped 11:40 a.m. Berhe was killed at about 11:30 a.m.

The Facebook account became unavailable Friday morning, before Tekhle made his first appearance in court.

According to Facebook, content can become unavailable if someone changes who can see it or deletes it.

CBC has been unable to verify whether Tekhle owns or operates the Facebook account that contains images of him, wrote or published the Thursday morning post himself, or had anything to do with the account becoming unavailable Friday morning.