The sister of a 25-year-old Indigenous woman killed by her boyfriend believes more could have been done to prevent Autumn Crosschild’s death, after a 911 call for help was improperly labelled which could have potentially saved her life.
Brandon Yellowfly, 27, pleaded guilty to second degree murder in Crosschild’s death and on Feb. 13 was sentenced at Calgary’s Court of King’s Bench to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years.
According to the agreed statement of facts of the trial, Yellowfly beat his on-again off-again girlfriend to death in June 2022 at their Castleridge home, admitting to hitting Crosschild’s head against a door frame while she attempted to escape the abuse and screamed for help.
Nikki-Lee Heavyrunner is satisfied with the sentence but believes her sister fell through the cracks of several agencies leading up to her death and could have been saved.
“I felt like justice was served because he had destroyed our family,” she said. “It was the other stuff that I wasn’t happy with.”
Court heard that between June 10 and 17, police and support workers were called several times by Crossfield’s mom and family to do a welfare check.
On June 12, she called 911 for an ambulance saying she had consumed alcohol but paramedics noted she did not seem intoxicated.
At the hospital she told staff that “her lover was hurting her” and locked herself in a bathroom, eventually leaving with the man who would kill her days later.
“They should have helped her or kept her safe,” said Heavyrunner.
On June 14, a neighbour who lived in the unit below called 911 to report he could hear the attack and worried his female neighbour “would be murdered.”
However, the call was incorrectly labelled by the dispatcher, leaving police to believe they could not forcibly enter the home when nobody came to the door.
“Instead of a welfare check, the 911 dispatcher labelled the occurrence as a verbal disturbance and neglected to detail the full extent of the safety and welfare concerns as described by the neighbour. The level of urgency was unknown to the responding police members,” reads the document.
Court heard Crosschild was likely laying dying inside and could potentially have been treated for her injuries.
“With immediate medical intervention, the injuries sustained by Ms. Crosschild were potentially survivable.”
“I do get upset by that, that they didn’t help her when a neighbour was trying to help her, saying he was worried she was going to be murdered and she was,” said Heavyrunner. “It plays in the back of my head that she could have been saved.”
She believes several agencies including 911 and police failed her sister and believes she would still be alive had they intervened sooner.
“I hope they look into what had happened. I think they need to take calls like that more serious not to brush it off and make sure they have the proper training to label these things so it doesn’t happen again to another person,” she said.
Crosschild and Yellowfly were in an on-again off-again relationship for six years and Heavyrunner said her sister had expressed her desire to leave him the days leading up to the killing, but was scared.
She hopes her sister’s death will raise awareness about domestic violence and the disproportionate number of Indigenous women and girls impacted by violence in Canada, including homicide, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault.
“It’s an overwhelming feeling when you can’t help someone and you know they need help,” she said. “I felt hopeless and helpless when she was in it because it felt the more I pulled her towards getting help and getting her to us the more he pulled back and pulled her away from us even more, like this tug of war,” she said.
Lana Wells an associate professor of social work at the University of Calgary and researcher on the prevention of domestic violence said the burden of safety is often put on victim’s and their families.
“We need to flip the script and be thinking about how we can intervene and support men who are at risk of perpetrating or are perpetrating violence.
“They need better supports and resources and we need a community response, it’s not just up to one group.” she said.
“There are multiple red flags,” she added, “but it’s not just up to the police, we don’t have a system to monitor those men.
“I think what’s missing from all the municipalities across Canada is a more collaborative approach between police and community-based agencies and communities that when there is a red flag were actually providing supports and interventions for those men that are causing harm and harming others.”
Heavyrunner says the impact of her sister’s killing has been destructive to her family and is hopeful the sentence will help her grief.
“She was kind, generous humble, caring,” she said, describing Crosschild. “She was too kind. She never seen the bad in people even if you told her. She just tried to see the good in everyone around her.”
If you or someone you know is at risk of violence, you’re encourage to call or text The Family Violence Information Line at 310-1818.
