A teenager charged in the death of a six-week-old baby in Saskatoon had escaped from provincial custody hours earlier. Now police are investigating how calls about the teen's possible location were handled.
Police received a tip on Saturday afternoon regarding the possible location of the 16-year-old girl, who hours earlier had escaped from a youth centre where she was serving a 10-month open custody sentence.
Police were informed that the girl may be at one of two locations, but the caller said she wasn't at either location at the time.
The call-taker told the tipster to call back when she was at the location with the wanted teen, and a patrol car would be dispatched immediately.
However, police said no one ever called back.
On Sunday morning, police arrived to a home in the city's College Park neighbourhood, where they found six-week-old Nikosis Jace Cantre with serious injuries. He later died in hospital.
The home was one of the locations that the tipster reported to police.
"We respond to a number of calls for people who have walked away from open custody," Saskatoon police spokesperson Kelsie Fraser told reporters on Thursday. "At that point, she was just a youth who was unlawfully at large."
Saskatoon's police chief, meanwhile, has launched an investigation into how the calls to police were handled.
The 16-year-old, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been charged with second-degree murder in Nikosis' death. She's expected to remain behind bars until a bail hearing scheduled for next week.
The teen was serving a sentence at Kilburn Hall Youth Centre in relation to a number of offences including break and enter, arson damage to property (a group home), assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, and robbery with a weapon, according to court documents.
With a report and files from CTV Saskatoon
