Saskatoon police tipped off about accused teen day before baby boy died

Saskatoon police received a tip about the 16-year-old girl accused of injuring and killing a six-week-old babya day before the incident unfolded.

In the early morning of Saturday, July 2, police were notified by the Kilburn Hall Youth Centre a teenaged girl left the open-custody facility.Police said within minutes a notice was sent to patrol officers to be on the lookout for the girl.

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At around 3 a.m. CST on July 2,police said they received a tip from Kilburn Hallsaying they found an address written on a piece of paper the girl left behind. Within 20 minutes, a patrol car showed up and knocked on the door of a home in the 200 block of Avenue N N.However, police said no one answered the door.

About 12 hours later, police received a call from someone who knew the name of the 16-year-old girl, and knew two possible locations where she could be. One address was a home on Eighth Street and the second location was a home in the 200 block of Waterloo Crescent.

"She said she had the name and she said she was aware that this girl had walked away from Kilburn," Alyson Edwards with the Saskatoon Police Servicesaid. "So we were told this young woman, and another young woman, were going back and forth between these addresses [but the caller]was not sure which one they were at."

The caller, who identified herself as Andrea Bird, said she was a relative of the young woman who was with the 16-year-old girl. However, she could not confirm the girl's exact location.

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Edwards said the call-taker speaking to Bird asked her to call her back once she could confirm where the girl was located.A callback never happened.

"We never heard anything more," Edwards said.

The next day, police found ababyinjured in the 200 block of Waterloo Crescent around 7 a.m. Police laid a second-degree murder charge against a 16-year-old girl on Sunday evening.

On Tuesday, the family held a vigil at their home on Waterloo Crescent, praying for justice for the baby, Nikosis Jace Cantre.

• Emotion flows at vigil for baby boy killed in Saskatoon

Alerting the public

Edwards said usually police don't send out a notification to media outlets when a person isunlawfully at large because it happens quite often.

"These types of calls are very common, [being] unlawfully at large. Often you get someone who doesn't want to be picked up, so they will move from place to place. So that's why we were trying to confirm a location," she said.

Edwards said the police service is reviewing its practices and procedures to make sure they did all they could in this instance.