SASKATOON— The first police officer to enter a westside home where a man lay dying from a gunshot wound described a frantic, blood-soaked scene and a “harrowing” solo response during the murder trial of Katlim Desjarlais-Kelly, 23, in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench.
Cst. Erin Anthony, a patrol officer with the Saskatoon Police Service since 2020, testified on Jan. 28 she was working on the east side on Feb. 10, 2024, when a priority-one 911 came in at 6:47 a.m. reporting an injured man at 238 Avenue K North. She was dispatched one minute later.
“I was the closest available unit,” she testified. “My backup wasn't going to get to me for quite some time, so I knew I was going to be the only officer on scene upon first arrival.”
Crown prosecutor Lee Hnatiuk told the jury that 48-year-old Arden Felix Panipekeesick was found suffering a gunshot wound and later pronounced dead. Desjarlais-Kelly is charged with second-degree murder. Police have said the accused and Panipekeesick were known to each other.
The Crown said that moments before the shooting, Panipekeesick had been yelling at Desjarlais-Kelly to “get out” of the home.
Hnatiuk told jurors the confrontation escalated quickly, ending with a single gunshot that struck Panipekeesick in the neck.
Officer describes racing across the city
Anthony testified she crossed the Idylwyld Bridge with lights and sirens activated, heading west from the opposite side of the city. She checked the GPS unit that allows officers to see where other units in the city are and saw no closer units.
As she approached the home, she saw a man in the middle of the street waving.
“He was dressed in all black, holding a cell phone,” she said, adding he was “frantically waving at me as I was coming up the block.”
She pulled her vehicle over and got out at the scene and began asking questions as she went into the residence.
Bright red blood and the smell of copper
Inside the home, Anthony said the smell of blood was strong.
“You can smell almost kind of like copper pennies when there’s a lot of blood dispersed into a room,” she testified. “You can smell it when you enter.”
She moved through the living room and into the kitchen, where she found Panipekeesick slumped in a tight corner against a washing machine. A woman, later identified as Panipekeesick's partner Eva Pritchard, was holding his neck, screaming and begging for someone to help him.
“He was covered head to toe in blood,” testified Anthony. “The clothing that was on him and around his head and neck area were completely soaked through with bright red blood. There was blood smeared on the washing machine, the floor, the wall, as well as the female who was holding him."
Anthony, who has attended many scenes where people were injured, said she recognized the colour as arterial bleeding.
Alone in the house where a gun might still be present
Anthony told the court she had to balance officer safety with the urgency of the victim’s condition.
“Being first to arrive on scene to a high-risk call where a firearm was likely involved is a pretty harrowing feeling,” she said. “I needed to be cognizant that a firearm may still be present in the residence.”
She scanned the rooms as she moved, noting a man in a bedroom covering his ears and crying, and another woman leaving the kitchen. She said she saw no weapons.
Dragging the victim out of corner
Anthony testified she asked the man who had flagged her down to help her move Panipekeesick out of the cramped corner so she could assess his injuries.
“I asked him to push the victim forward while I pulled to try and get him out of the tiny space that he was in so I could get him into the kitchen,” she said.
Together they dragged him several feet into the centre of the kitchen. At one point he ended up face down so Anthony flipped him onto his back.
His eyes were open but "staring up," she said. Blood was filling his mouth.
Gunshot wound “not compatible with life”
Anthony lifted a blood-soaked blue T-shirt that was tied around his neck and she saw a gunshot wound on the left side.
"The injury was substantial," she said. “In my capacity as a police officer, I was aware that a ballistics injury of that size to someone’s neck is likely going to have injuries not compatible with life.”
Panipekeesick's eyes were fixated in one spot, she said.
"They were not blinking or moving. There was no chest movement in terms of breathing, and there was blood filling the male's mouth."
Still, she began CPR.
“Although I was aware the male may be deceased, I cannot make that judgment call,” she said. “So I began doing compressions as it was the only available option that I had.”
The man who had flagged her down took turns with her doing CPR as she radioed for more units.
Pritchard moved up to the victim's head and "was holding his head and screaming," testified Anthony. "I just remember her screaming repeatedly. And the male complainant who had assisted me in moving the victim was holding his left arm, and as I was doing compressions, I could hear the male just repeatedly saying, 'you've got a pulse, you've got a pulse.'"
Paramedics call time of death
Backup officers eventually arrived and then paramedics. Anthony said medical staff placed monitoring equipment on the victim before declaring him dead at 7:02 a.m., roughly 10 minutes after she arrived.
Because the call had come in as a “person injured” file, Anthony said she tried to avoid disturbing potential evidence. She said she was “covered head to toe” in blood and didn't want to contaminate the scene.
She looked briefly for shell casings but found none.
Anthony remained in the kitchen while other officers cleared the home. She testified she never saw a firearm or ammunition.
The trial continues before Justice Krista L. Zerr. Desjarlais-Kelly is represented by defence lawyer Patrick McDougall.
