Family calls for more inclusion in legal process

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This article was published 13/01/2024 (907 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Denise Cook says she cries when she washes dishes because her son, Andre Katzenellenbogen, who died after a violent altercation last year, is no longer there to help her like he used to or tell her he loves her before he leaves for work.

And now, two weeks after the Crown stayed the manslaughter charge against a man in connection with Katzenellenbogen’s death, Cook is criticizing the handling of the investigation and calling for more victim inclusion in the prosecution’s case.

“I just want to be treated fairly,” Cook told the Sun. “A fair trial instead of just brushing it under the rug.”

Katzenellenbogen, 31, died on June 10, 2023 in the 700 block of Louise Avenue in the early morning hours. He received several injuries, including a stab wound, and later died in hospital.

Cook said she wasn’t told by police directly when her son was taken to the hospital and wasn’t informed either when police charged a 36-year-old man with manslaughter in connection with the death.

“I’m Indigenous and I feel I’m discriminated against,” Cook said. “That’s exactly how I felt throughout the whole investigation because I got no calls.”

Cook is a member of Bloodvein First Nation, as was Katzenellenbogen, who was also half German.

“Nobody called us whatsoever, included us in the investigation, questioned me whatsoever — me and my daughter felt like we were left in the dark,” she said

But the lack of communication didn’t end at the investigation either. Cook said that in the six months after her son’s death, she met with prosecutors twice — once during a Zoom call (the case was handled by a Winnipeg Crown attorney) and the other time when a prosecutor met her in person in Brandon to tell her that the Crown would be staying the charges.

Cook said that on Dec. 21, she met with a Winnipeg Crown attorney who told her that the police did a good job on the case, and that was when she knew something was coming. She was then told that the manslaughter charge in the death of her son was being stayed.

“I couldn’t say any more, I couldn’t speak — I started crying and shaking,” she said. “I just wanted to leave and go hide under a rock.”

In Brandon provincial court on Dec. 22, the charge of manslaughter against Dennis Blacksmith was stayed. He was released from custody the same day.

Cook said she never saw any of the evidence prosecutors had, though the Crown attorney did talk to her about a video that had captured Katzenellenbogen swinging a bag with two beer cans and yelling at someone to get away.

It was unclear whether the subsequent fight that broke out between him and another man, and the injury to Katzenellenbogen with a knife or machete, were captured on the video.

Katzenellenbogen, she said, had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend at her house earlier that night and both her son and his girlfriend had been drinking. Katzenellenbogen was on his way back home to Cook’s house when he came across the other man, Cook said.

The next time she saw her son was in the hospital, with numerous cuts to his head and chest.

If she could have viewed the video, she said, she might have been able to help identify or verify her son in the footage. Since the charge was stayed, she has requested to see the video, but hasn’t heard back. She now takes care of her son’s nine-month-old baby girl.

“My gut feeling is that they just didn’t want to spend enough money on the case to go to trial,” Cook said. “It’s just another Native’s life, but to me, my son didn’t get the justice he deserved.”

On Monday, Sary Innerst, the mother of Katzenellenbogen’s girlfriend, started a petition on Change.org demanding justice for the 31-year-old.

The petition cites statistics on the overrepresentation of Indigenous people as victims of homicide and claims that the Brandon Police Service did not complete a thorough investigation into Katzenellenbogen’s death.

“I’m more angry at the fact that this wasn’t treated properly,” Innerst said in an interview with the Sun. “We weren’t given the respect that families of murder victims should get.”

Innerst said she feels as though the police wrote off Katzenellenbogen and his girlfriend because they had been intoxicated at the time and had past interactions with police.

“People that are known to the police, it’s like the police know that history, so they don’t give them a chance,” she said.

After Katzenellenbogen died, Innerst said, her daughter took it very hard and now their baby is being raised by Cook.

“You’re already going through loss,” Innerst said. “I feel like I lost two people.”

The Brandon Police Service did not respond to specific questions about their investigation of the case, but did provide a statement.

“The Brandon Police Service completed a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the death of Andre Katzenellenbogen; free of bias and discrimination,” the statement reads. “Throughout the duration of the investigation and court process, members continued to work closely with the Crown attorney.”

The statement also said that any new or additional evidence discovered would be considered for further investigation and encouraged anyone with information about the case to contact BPS.

Manitoba Prosecution Service did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by press time.

“It’s really sad that we’re not treated like members of society, like we’re outsiders in society,” Innerst said. “We’re picking up the pieces of our lives now and trying to carry on.”

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