Colten Boushie remembered as 'good guy' at funeral on a Sask. First Nation

A community is saying goodbye to a young man who was was killed on a property in rural Saskatchewan earlier this week.

Colten Boushie, 22, died after he was shot on Tuesday.

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According to RCMP, five people were in a vehicle that entered a farmyard in the Rural Municipality of Glenside around 5:30 p.m. CST. The owners of the property did not know the people in the vehicle. A verbal exchange happened and a shot was fired, striking a man in the vehicle.

A man associated with the property,Gerald Stanley, 54,is now charged with second-degree murder.

Gathering to say goodbye

Family of Boushie, from as far away as Alberta and the northwest U.S., gathered on the Red Pheasant First Nation Saturday morning for the young man's funeral.

Boushie's mother, Debbie Baptiste, said it wasn't long ago that her son was one of the men in the community helping with other people's funerals.

"We have our traditional ways out here, how we do things around here. And one of the things [is] when we're burying somebody, a fire is lit and somebody has to watch it all night until morning," Baptiste explained.

"So my sons would do that," she said. "They'd sit out at that fire and they didn't even know the person who was laying in there who they were burying, but they wanted to help and that's how they'd help out."

This time the fire was lit for her son, who Baptiste said was a well-educated and caring young man.

Baptiste said Boushie had recently acquired his firefighting certificate and planned to go to university this fall.

"He was really a good guy who they took away from us so suddenly and he can't be replaced. And I'm going to miss him so much."

Looking for justice

Many mourners on the First Nation said there are a lot of questions about what happened the day Boushie was killed and how the RCMP handled releasing information about it.

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"We don't want this to be swept under the rug," Alvin Baptiste, Boushie's uncle, said.

"We're focused on laying Colten to rest right now but now my family will stand up and they're ready to support and rally for justice."