Members of Winnipeg Deaf Fellowship Church reeling in the wake of 3-year-old daughter's killing.
WINNIPEG -- 'It’s horrific. It’s awful,' Calvary Temple's Bruce Martin says.
Members of Winnipeg's Calvary Temple are devastated after learning this week the daughter of a longtime member was brutally killed, allegedly by the hands of her father - another longtime congregant.
Read more: Deaf Father Charged With Killing His Daughter
"I just couldn't believe this had happened," lead pastor Bruce Martin said Friday of the killing of the three-year-old on Wednesday. "It was so sad, oh my."
Winnipeg police have charged Frank Nausigimana, 28, with first-degree murder of his daughter, Jemimah, after he allegedly abducted her from her mother at knifepoint and killed her inside a car not long after.
Frank Nausigimana's Criminal History: Winnipeg Deaf Man Accused of Murdering Daughter Lacked Remorse For Assaulting Girl's Mother: Court Report
Nausigimana and the girl's mother were formerly longtime friends and each a member of Calvary Temple of the Deaf Followship.
While Martin isn't the pastor of that sub-ministry of the church, he said the person who is "loved them so much and is finding it so difficult."
He expects the entire congregation of the downtown Christian church will feel the same way.
"This little family were loved by a community of believers," he told CBC. "So right now for them it's the old, 'what did we miss? Why weren't we there? Why couldn't we help them? What went wrong?" he said.
"And there are no answers."
Jemimah's mother and Nausigimana had a major falling out after she became pregnant in 2017.
Court documents show Nausigimana assaulted her in the course of trying to force her to abort the unborn child. The woman applied for a protection order which prevented Nausigimana from attending the church when she was there.
She later told court she'd forgiven him and moved to have the order revoked, but tensions between them appeared to flare earlier this year after Nausigimana applied for joint custody of the girl, which she was opposed to. He alleged she'd cut off his access to her in early January.
Martin said he wasn't aware of the details of what was going on but said people in the church community knew there was conflict. He said the circumstances of the girl's death will be equally shattering to the city's tight-knit ASL & Deaf community.
"This will be devastating because they are so caring for each other and so connected to each other and they know each other so well. It's horrific. It's awful," he said.
Martin said he planned to address the matter in his Sunday sermon. He encouraged anyone who is struggling to reach out to get help.
"It happened because we live in a fallen world. People aren't perfect. Mental health is an issue and sometimes people make really bad choices," he said.
"Life is not always fair but there's always tomorrow," he said.
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