Metro Vancouver’s Ethiopian community is mourning the sudden death of a little girl in New Westminster.
Around 11 p.m. on June 7, officers were called to the 300 block of Stanley Street in Queensborough for a suspected drowning. The two-year-old was still alive when officers arrived. She was rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead a short while later, according to the New Westminster Police Department.
The little girl has been identified as Biftu Taju.
“I feel very bad, and it’s a big tragedy. This is the first time it happen in our community. We’re a very small community, very tight together, family-oriented community. It’s really very sad,” family friend Amin Jundi told reporters last week.
The preliminary investigation confirmed Biftu drowned in a ditch outside her Queensborough home.
“The investigation continues, but this is believed to be accidental and not criminal in nature,” New Westminster Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Jeff Scott wrote in an email to the Record.
Scott said the priority is “providing the family with all the different support networks that we have available to walk them through this grieving process.”
The community is trying to do the same, Jundi said.
“We’re all here. We’re trying just to support them, to get them comfort about what happened,” he said, adding the family has asked to be left alone at this time.
