Winnipeg police have arrested and charged the stepmother of a child who was fatally assaulted late last month.
Police were called to the home in the 100 block of Snowdon Avenue on March 24 for a report of an injured toddler. The two-and- half-year-old boy was taken to hospital in critical condition.
Officers spoke to the child’s caregiver, who said the boy was struck by a sibling. Police determined that explanation wasn’t consistent with the boy’s injuries and alerted the Child Abuse Unit.
The boy, identified as Brett White, succumbed to his injuries on March 26.
The victim’s stepmother, Victoria Reane Thiessen, 20, has been charged with manslaughter.
Thiessen remains in custody.
“It’s tragic on so many levels,” Const. Rob Carver said Monday.
He said Thiessen told first-responders and investigators that either the child had fallen or that he was struck by a four-year-old sibling.
“The examination concluded that neither of those explanations would have accounted for the seriousness of injury,” Carver said.
The biological father wasn’t home at the time, police said.
The death is Winnipeg’s 10th homicide of 2020.
