GoFundMe created for 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed at MacEwan LRT station

A 13-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed at the MacEwan LRT station in Downtown Edmonton late Wednesday night is being remembered by family as a good kid with a “heart of gold.”

A GoFundMe fundraising account has been established for Eric Omeasoo, 13. The boy was part of a group of four youths and an 18-year-old man who reportedly assaulted a 34-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman at the LRT station, police said in a Friday news release. An autopsy on Friday confirmed the boy died from a stab wound and the manner of death is homicide.

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“Eric was just beginning his journey into his teenage years and was full of life and passion,” posted Madison Guimond, a family member and organizer of the GoFundMe. By Sunday, more than $5,000 had been raised.

The funds will be used for funeral arrangements and related expenses “as we honour his memory and cope with this tragic and most devastating loss,” Guimond said.

A ‘heart of gold’

A lifelong Riverdale resident, Omeasoo was a member of the Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis, where his late father was a member.

Omeasoo’s grandmother, Rhonda Spence, raised him and his four sisters.

“When his dad passed away, it took a real bad toll on my daughter, and she really struggled with just life, and him being gone,” Spence said.

“I (took) them in and raised them because I didn’t want them to fall into the cracks of the system,” said Spence, who is a Canadian certified addictions counsellor, active in grassroots movements like Stolen Sisters, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

She’s served as president of the board of the Creating Hope Society.

Omeasoo was raised in a loving and positive environment, Spence said.

“Eric wasn’t living in a troubled home. He didn’t come from a home where there was alcohol, drugs, smoking, any of that. He came from a home where we’re very strong in our Indigenous culture and ceremony, and that’s what he was brought up with,” she said.

He loved all things sports, playing basketball and hockey, the Edmonton Oilers, and he loved singing traditional powwow music.

“He had a vibrant sense of humour. That was his little gift there, to always lift people’s spirits with humour.

“He always had a smile on his face. Eric’s vibrant spirit touched everyone who knew him,” Spence said.

“He was the type of kid who made friends very quickly.”

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Omeasoo was honoured at his school last week with a memorial attended by classmates, teachers and friends.

“(They) acknowledged him today with profound sadness as a good kid with a ‘heart of gold’ and who will be deeply missed,” she said. “The teachers and principal spoke of how he loved and cared for the younger kids at school and was always there to watch over them and was a funny, outgoing, respectful kid.”

Spence posted on social media that her grandson was “full of life, laughter and most importantly, love.” “He was a typical 13-year-old teenager still learning and growing in life and through his imperfections.”

A grandmother’s grief

Spence said there was no warning Wednesday evening of the horror to follow.

“He was at his great-grandma’s, who lives a couple blocks from that specific station. He left around 10-10:30. They told him not to leave. They said, ‘Eric, you need to stay here, Grandma’s gonna come pick you up.’

“He said, ‘I’ll be right back. I’m just running to the LRT to get my sweater from my friend.’ That’s what he said. And he never came back.”

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The investigation continues, and so do Spence’s questions about the last moments of her beloved grandson’s life.

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Spence recalled her shock at being told the news by two police members who came to see her, and recorded a conversation with a homicide detective, with his permission.

There were a number of cameras in the area that reportedly captured video, but Spence hasn’t been allowed to see the footage. Witness interviews took most of the night, she was told.

The others in the group Omeasoo was in have been charged with aggravated assault in connection with the incident.

“The man who stabbed my grandson has not been charged,” she said.

On social media, she has sworn to be Omeasoo’s voice beyond the grave.

“I am here to be the voice for my grandson because he was loved immensely and he was a human being. My life is shattered as I write this. In the end, a young life was taken from all who loved him. Forever 13,” she wrote.

A wake for Omeasoo will be held Thursday after 4 p.m. at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples with Indigenous drummers. The funeral will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Sacred Heart.

Edmonton LRT crime

In a year-end report, EPS Chief Dale McFee said average crime on the LRT and transit centres had gone down six per cent in 2024.

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“Calls for service to LRT stations and transit centres increased by 12 per cent. One driver of the increase in calls for service to LRT stations and transit centres is an increase in officer-generated calls for service due to the increased presence of TRACS (Transit and Community Safety) teams,” the report said.

The tragic stabbing was the second in three months on Edmonton’s LRT line.

On the evening of Nov. 24, 2024, downtown patrol members responded to a report of a stabbing at the Corona LRT station.

The officers found a man who had stab wounds to his abdomen. Reports suggest there was a verbal altercation with a woman inside the LRT station’s entrance and the female suspect stabbed the man before fleeing the area, the report said.

jcarmichael@postmedia.com

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