Selena Rose Keeper was found with serious injuries in the 400-block of Flora Avenue at 8 a.m. Thursday. She was rushed to hospital in critical condition, but later pronounced dead.
By Red Power Media, Staff, Updated, Oct 14, 2015
Winnipeg’s Latest Homicide Victim Had Application For Protection Order Dismissed.
The justice system has once again failed to effectively protect an Indigenous woman.
Five months before she was brutally beaten to death in a North End Winnipeg neighbourhood, Selena Keeper, 20, was denied a protection order against the same man now accused of murdering her.
Keeper, was found with serious injuries in the 400-block of Flora Avenue at 8 a.m., the morning of Oct 8th. She was rushed to hospital in critical condition, but later pronounced dead.
A Police investigation has revealed Keeper and her former boyfriend — 20 year-old, Ray William Everett, had gone to a residence, where Everett began assaulting Keeper repeatedly in the upper body. Witnesses attempted to stop the attack, but the assault continued.
The victim was left unresponsive outside the residence.
Everett was located by Police and arrested in the 500 block of Selkirk Avenue.
Everett has been charged with second-degree murder and remanded into custody.
His prior convictions include robbery and weapons related charges.
Justice of the peace rejects protecting Keeper.
Court records show that Keeper had applied for a protection order against Everett in May 2015, and it was marked dismissed the day after it was filed.
Keeper spoke by phone May 19 to a justice of the peace based in Brandon, Man., and alleged that she had been hit, kicked and beaten regularly by Ray William Everett.
In a recording of the May 19 hearing, Keeper tells justice of the peace Debra Motuz that she was regularly beaten during a two-year relationship with Everett, even while she was pregnant with the couple’s child.
“He would always kick me to the corners and try and kick my tummy. He would punch me. It was like an everyday routine.”
The couple broke up in 2014, but Everett continued to seek her out, Keeper said. Last December, when the two were drinking together, she was assaulted and police were called, she said.
“I just remember waking up in the hospital with four stitches on my nose — a fractured nose, a bruised face and a concussion.”
Keeper’s decision to seek a protection order was promoted by an encounter April 9 in which she told the hearing Everett “slapped me across the face.”
Selena Rose Keeper told a justice of the peace her ex abused her even when she was pregnant with their child.
Keeper filed a sworn affidavit to support her testimony, but none of the allegations was proven in court.
She also said she was concerned Everett had access to weapons because he belonged to a street gang.
Motuz rejected the application for a protection order, which would have prevented the man from contacting Keeper in any way.
“It’s an extraordinary remedy to be granted a protection order and it’s only to be granted when serious and urgent circumstances indicate a need for prompt action to protect the victim,” Motuz said toward the end of the 15-minute hearing.
“Based on the time frame — today being May 19, which is some five to six weeks after the last incident — I am not satisfied that you require protection on an immediate basis.”
The justice of the peace formally dismissed the application and asked Keeper if she understood.
“All right?”
“Yeah,” Keeper replied softly.
Selena Rose Keeper told a justice of the peace her ex abused her even when she was pregnant with their child. FACEBOOK
Canadian justice system has repeatedly failed.
The Canadian justice system has repeatedly failed to put an end to the epidemic of violence against indigenous women.
The justice system failed to respond appropriately to Keeper’s request for protection and the level of violence she had faced.
Discrimination against indigenous women is also embedded in the criminal justice system in Canada.
Canada’s justice system must make changes in order to take immediate and comprehensive action to prevent, investigate, and punish acts of violence perpetrated against Indigenous women.
