Mike on Crime

By Alexandra Paul
Winnipeg Free Press

Police are citing alcohol consumption as a factor in a tragedy in which a Berens River woman apparently killed her sister-in-law and injured two other family members by driving over them while they slept on ground outside her home.

RCMP said several people were at the home at the time of the incident Saturday afternoon, and they had been drinking.

“This is an event that involved a lot of alcohol consumption,” Sgt. Line Karpish said Sunday. “There was a gathering at the house at the time of the incident.”

While driving out of her yard in a Pontiac Tempest, the woman ran over the three people, RCMP said.

A 43-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene by a nurse from the local medical station.

The victim’s 44-year-old husband and 24-year-old daughter, both of Berens River, were medevaced to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Both sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

A concerned reserve resident, who did not want to give her name, said the family had been drinking together at the house and the mother, the father and daughter passed out in the front yard.

“It was 4:30 and it was a sunny day. You do crazy things when you’re drinking and they passed out on the ground,” the resident said. “The woman got in the car with a couple of other women and she was backing up. It’s sad.”

It took RCMP five hours to reach the scene, so residents set up a guard around the body.

RCMP are not releasing the names of any victims.

Bernice Bouchie, 29, has been charged with two counts of impaired driving causing bodily harm and one count of impaired driving causing death.

She was released on recognizance on condition that she appear in Berens River court Aug. 12.

Berens River is 270 kilometres north of Winnipeg, a 45-minute flight from the city.