New Witness Testifies That Stonechild Was Murdered

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 15:34

 

 

A witness testified at a police commission hearing in Saskatoon today that two former police officers are not responsible for the freezing death of an Aboriginal teenager in 1990.

 

The name of the witness and who he is implicating in the death of Neil Stonechild can’t be revealed because of a publication ban.

 

The witness gave testimony that someone murdered Stonechild, and that the Saskatoon Police are not responsible for his death.

 

The witness claimed to be well-connected to criminals in other institutions in this province, and because of that, said he was risking his life by taking part in today’s hearing.

 

Stonechild’s frozen body was found on the outskirts of Saskatoon in November 1990.

 

More than 10 years later, there were allegations of police dropping off Aboriginal men outside the city — infamously known as the “starlight tours”.

 

This prompted a provincial inquiry into the matter, and in the end, a justice commissioner filed a report saying evidence indicated that then-constables Bradley Senger and Larry Hartwig had Stonechild in the back of their police cruiser before his death.

 

Both men were subsequently fired from the Saskatoon Police Service, although neither man was charged in a court of law for Stonechild’s death.

 

Hartwig and Senger are appealing their firings.

 

The admissability of today’s evidence will be argued on October 22nd when the appeal of their dismissals is heard before the Saskatchewan Police Commission.