Community of Shelburne rallies behind grieving mother
Community members in southwestern Nova Scotia are rallying behind the #JusticeForDrew movement after the announcement that there will be no charges pressed in the death of 13-year old Drew Nickerson.
He was attacked and killed on January 3 by three large breed dogs in Welshtown.
All three dogs were later euthanized.
Drew’s mother, Dawn Nickerson, said in a post online that she is in shock and disbelief.
“I wasn’t asking for anything unreasonable. All I wanted was accountability for Drew,” wrote Dawn. “My son deserved justice. He deserved to have his life matter.”
Danielle Francis is a close friend of the Nickerson family who has known them for years. She said she’s been in contact with Dawn every day since the news broke that there would be no charges laid.
“She’s devastated, she’s absolutely devastated,” said Francis. “She feels like she was failed.”
Francis put out a call to action on Facebook with the tagline “JUSTICE FOR DREW – WHAT THE COMMUNITY SHOULD DO” that has been shared hundreds of times.
In that post she calls for community members to push for a senior review of the decision, answers from the RCMP and Crown prosecutors and for law changes so other families don’t face the same situation.
She says the dogs were well known and feared in the community, and had been reported to both police and the owners numerous times before Drew’s death. One incident she detailed involved a mother and child being cornered in a change room at a nearby public beach.
“It’s no different than leaving a loaded gun on your front lawn while kids are outside playing,” said Francis. “But if the gun goes off, who’s responsible for it? The gun owner.”
Francis said she doesn’t want a witch hunt on big dogs, but that she’s shocked that nothing more came from the eight month investigation. Additionally, she says the owners still have a dog of the same breed that continues to get loose from it’s kennels and have incidents with the public.
She says it doesn’t strike her as owners who have learned from the experience.
“My brain can’t comprehend how after something like this, that could be the response,” said Francis. “Just zero accountability across the board.”
In a statement, the RCMP said they didn’t have enough evidence to lay charges, and that it remains “a tragic incident”.
Public Prosecution Services said they cannot discuss advice provided in a specific case or the evidence considered, and that decisions about whether to lay charges are ultimately made by police.
