‘Mom, where is uncle?’: Saskatoon’s first homicide of 2025 leaves family shaken

Saskatoon’s first homicide of 2025 has left the Ghanian community mourning and shaken.

Twenty-three-year-old Alfred Okyere was found by police at a business on the corner of Millar Avenue and 70th Street Monday evening.

When they arrived, police found Okyere suffering from stab wounds. He was taken to hospital where he later died.

Those close to Okyere say he had only been in the country for four months, working a temporary job at DSI Underground.

“He’s the calmest person you could ever be with and it’s really a shock that he’s in this situation,” Alexander Osei-Owusu, a family friend of Okyere said.

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Police say the suspect fled on scene but was found and arrested near 2^nd Avenue South and Spadina Crescent East.

Fifty-three-year-old Troy Leclair has been charged with first-degree murder, and the investigation is ongoing.

Friends and family gathered at provincial court Wednesday to support each other. They want Okyere to be remembered as a hard-working student and brother who was thinking about making Canada his home.

“We don’t know if we can all make Canada home now, but we believe that things will change, we believe in the system and we believe that people will hear us and speak for us at this time,” Osei-Owusu said.

Okyere’s sister Lydia Obeng said the death has been a great loss to her family.

“It breaks me when my two kids ask me, ‘mom, where is uncle?’”

Osei-Owusu hopes they can move forward together in this difficult time.

“There is fear and panic with all of us…but we pray in that we can have strength to go through this period and we would like the society to support us,” he said.

Okyere marks Saskatoon’s first reported homicide of the year. In 2024, Saskatoon saw a total of 15.

Saskatoon police chief Cam McBride has previously stated more and more people are carrying weapons, which he said increases the potential for more homicides.

Court proceedings are expected to continue on Jan. 29.

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