THUNDER BAY – Const. Ryan Dougherty, one of the first Thunder Bay Police Service officers who responded to a Victoria Avenue residence in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2020 after reports of a child having been stabbed by his mother, had to pause and wipe away tears before describing what he saw in the living room upon entering the home.
According to Dougherty, he and his partner were dispatched to a home on the 200s block of Victoria Avenue West at 7:10 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2020 and received information that a mother had stabbed her child. “He was trying to talk to me but I couldn’t understand the words he was saying. He was still breathing,” Dougherty said. “He went limp and his head went off to the left side, and at that time I believe he stopped breathing.”
“I asked him his name. He tried to speak back, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” Dzijak said. “From that point, we began applying pressure to the wounds and doing first aid and trying to keep him awake. It was during this time his breath started fading away.” “They said they were trying to control the bleeding,” Heino said. “I asked the officer if the child had a pulse and he said he didn’t know.”