{"id":730484,"date":"2026-06-11T20:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730484\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:22:16","slug":"asirt-to-probe-unprecedented-conduct-of-edmonton-police-in-child-manslaughter-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730484\/","title":{"rendered":"ASIRT to probe unprecedented conduct of Edmonton police in child manslaughter case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta\u2019s police watchdog has been directed to investigate the Edmonton\u2019s force\u2019s unprecedented public shaming of the Crown during an active criminal case \u2014 a move the judge said influenced the sentence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team<\/a> on Thursday announced it\u2019s investigating allegations arising from a letter sent by the Edmonton Police Service<\/a> to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service<\/a> last fall.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Edmonton police<\/a> said, for the first time in its history, it had sent a letter to Alberta Justice<\/a> requesting a review of a decision by the Crown to accept a manslaughter plea \u201cfor the horrific murder of a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNina Napope pictured in this undated photo. The eight-year-old girl was found dead in a hockey bag in central Alberta.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Charlene Dumais\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The accused, Ashley Rattlesnake, was initially charged with first-degree murder and causing an indignity to the body of eight-year-old Nina Napope, but accepted a plea deal last fall to the lesser charge of manslaughter.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

In the Sept. 8, 2025 letter, the EPS threatened that if the Crown did not change course, police would release their own details of the case so it could be judged in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n

\u2018Miscarriage of justice\u2019: Edmonton police object to manslaughter plea<\/p>\n

In its September letter<\/a>, the Edmonton Police Service said its officers conducted an extensive investigation and obtained significant evidence, resulting in an almost 80-page summary by homicide detectives that depicted \u201csignificant child abuse and sufficient evidence to justify to our officers reasonable grounds to charge the accused with first-degree murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manslaughter is when someone causes another person\u2019s death but didn\u2019t intend to do so, while first- and second-degree murder charges indicate the crime was premeditated. They also all come with different lengths of sentences.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:45
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEdmonton police object to Crown accepting manslaughter plea in girl\u2019s homicide\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Edmonton police said accepting the plea would be a miscarriage of justice in what it called an \u201cextreme child abuse\u201d and \u201cegregious homicide\u201d file.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

The letter signed by Chief Warren Driechel was sent by EPS legal and regulatory services director Megan Hankewich to Kim Goddard, the provincial assistant deputy justice minister and cc\u2019d to Justice Minister Mickey Amery.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n

The letter challenged the traditional firewall that separates police, who investigate a case, from prosecutors, who determine how best to proceed with the case in court.<\/p>\n

What happened at sentencing?<\/p>\n

On Feb. 27, Rattlesnake was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter<\/a>, less 4.25 years for time already served.<\/p>\n

It means Rattlesnake, now 30, will spend three years and nine months in prison. She had no record before being arrested for Nina\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

At that time, Justice Jody Fraser identified potential misconduct associated with the letter.<\/p>\n

Frasier said the EPS actions were reprehensible, lacked integrity and may have crossed the line of attempting to subvert justice. They said there needs to be separation between police and the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir actions go so far beyond what is acceptable conduct, it should be considered a somewhat mitigating factor on sentence,\u201d Fraser said when knocking a year off the original nine-year sentence.<\/p>\n

In determining the sentence, Fraser said aggravating factors included Rattlesnake being in a position of trust over a young, vulnerable Indigenous child, who suffered abuse under the woman.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:08
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFamily outraged over manslaughter sentence for woman who killed Edmonton child\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tCalls for investigation into EPS letter<\/p>\n

The Criminal Trial Lawyers\u2019 Association (CTLA) called out EPS for the letter, saying it was an extremely inappropriate extortion tactic.<\/p>\n

In April, both the CTLA and a retired Mountie called for a third-party investigation<\/a> into possible criminal behaviour by the police chief and his top departmental lawyer.<\/p>\n

They asked Amery to direct the Police Review Commission (PRC) to examine whether there is enough evidence to pursue charges.<\/p>\n

The province said Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis\u00a0 referred the matter to the PRC on June 5.<\/p>\n

ASIRT,<\/a>\u00a0a branch of the PRC, has now been directed to investigate the Level 1 complaint, which deals with incidents involving serious injury or death, as well as serious or sensitive allegations involving police conduct.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

ASIRT on Thursday stressed the opening of an investigation is not a predetermined finding of misconduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis investigation will be conducted carefully, fairly and without predetermined conclusions,\u201d Matthew Block, ASIRT\u2019s acting executive director, said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur responsibility is to follow the evidence, assess the matter within our mandate and provide the public with confidence that the process is independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Police Commission, which provides governance and oversees EPS, acknowledged the ASIRT investigation in a short statement on Thursday<\/a> but would not make anyone available to answer questions.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:05
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFormer Mountie, Alberta lawyers call Edmonton Police Service chief to be investigated\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWhat happened two years ago?<\/p>\n

Rattlesnake was drinking alcohol and using methamphetamine the night of the killing on April 22, 2023, court heard.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Nina was under Rattlesnake\u2019s care at the time of her death, at the request of the child\u2019s father who was behind bars.<\/p>\n

Nina was found lying on the floor bleeding next to a hole in the wall, but it\u2019s not known how she sustained her fatal head injury.<\/p>\n

Court heard Rattlesnake didn\u2019t call 911 and instead asked acquaintances for help. Four others were charged in the case.<\/p>\n

Global News\u00a0spoke with a woman who called 911<\/a> after hearing a rumour that a child may have been seriously injured or was dead.<\/p>\n

She said her nephew told her he showed up at the apartment where the child was allegedly injured and saw an unconscious girl with a head wound in a bedroom and a dent on the wall.<\/p>\n

On April 24, 2023, police stopped by a home near 87 Avenue and 165 Street in west Edmonton to check in on the well-being of a child.<\/p>\n

When Nina was nowhere to be found, officers began investigating. There were \u201csuspicious circumstances,\u201d and EPS said the homicide section took over the case.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNina Napope, eight, died in April 2023 in Edmonton and her body was found in Maskwacis, Alta., a few days later.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSupplied by family\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Nina\u2019s body was found a few days later on Samson Cree Nation<\/a>\u00a0in Maskwacis, which is located about a one-hour drive south of Edmonton.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

An autopsy found the girl died of blunt impact trauma<\/a>,\u00a0and the death was confirmed to be a homicide.<\/p>\n

The autopsy also showed the girl was chronically abused. She had previous, multiple broken bones and injuries. She also had sepsis because of an untreated infected broken tooth, which reduced her chances of surviving the head injury.<\/p>\n

Even before Nina was found, police believed she may have been killed.<\/a> Rattlesnake, 27 at the time, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and indignity to a dead body.<\/p>\n

Four other people were also charged with accessory to murder and indignity to a dead body.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:04
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPublication ban lifted as sentencing begins in case of Edmonton girl found dead in hockey bag\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u2019s police watchdog has been directed to investigate the Edmonton\u2019s force\u2019s unprecedented public shaming of the Crown during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[250519,59791,49,48,2169,23752,17443,201141],"class_list":["post-730484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta-serious-incident-response-team","tag-asirt","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-crime","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-police-service","tag-nina-napope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}