NELSON HOUSE, Man. -- RCMP say a man is facing several counts of impaired driving in the deaths of three boys run down on a road in northern Manitoba.
Todd Norman Linklater, 27, is charged with driving causing death and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.
Mateo Moore-Spence and Terrence Spence, both 11, and Keithan Lobster, who was 13, were hit by a vehicle on Saturday night north of Nelson House.
Two of the boys were walking and one had been riding a bike.
Marcel Moody, Chief of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, said the boys were good kids who liked to have fun and often played at his home with his grandchildren.
RCMP said two of the boys were walking and one was riding a bike on a road north of Nelson House when they were hit by a vehicle Saturday night.
Police said earlier the driver ran off but later turned himself in.
"There is no way to make sense of such a horrible tragedy," Moody said in a Facebook post.
"All of us are affected as we are friends and family of the three boys or we are friends of their families. Some of our families are doubly affected as they are related to the boys and to the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident."
He said the boys had looked forward to spring and getting outside on their bikes and hanging out with friends.
A vigil was planned for Monday night at the road site where they died.
