Brandon Harder
Regina Leader-Post
Editor’s note: This story presents a narrative around the incident that led to the death of Charles Russell Thompson, drawing from court submissions that referenced an agreed statement of facts and varied reports.
At the age that most children are beginning to learn about reading and writing, Charles Russell Thompson’s son learned about death.
But not in the way many children might learn — perhaps through the passing of a family pet or elderly relative, gently explained by a parent.
No, he attended his 30-year-old father’s funeral with his aunt — Thompson’s grieving sister. She struggled to explain to a child the loss that was ultimately brought about at the hands of children.
She understood that Thompson had been working with an addictions counsellor. He’d been working on getting his son back.
But on Boxing Day 2024, as many families in Regina enjoyed a holiday supper together, he fell wounded to the street, gasping for air before leaving this world.
Boys, a bottle and a blade
Earlier that day, a group of kids met up. Maybe they met downtown. It doesn’t matter where. But they ended up in the city’s North Central neighbourhood with a bottle of booze and a knife.
Two were 16 years old. The other two — referred to here as Ayden and Ben to protect their identities in keeping with the law — were still 15.
Ayden wanted to spend the holidays with his mom. He tracked her down after he ran away from the group home he was living at. He reached out to her Christmas Eve asking if she could find him a ride out to Alberta so they could spend Christmas together. She said she couldn’t, so he met up with friends and started drinking.
And he kept drinking.
The man he believed was his real dad was nowhere to be found but in his memory, in a long-ago violent altercation with his mother.
Ben’s dad died before he was born, and his mom had been out of his life since he was four.
Both boys had been in trouble with the law before and both were subject to court orders meant to keep them in line and others safe. They paid no mind to this.
They were standing with the other kids in an alley between Rae Street and Retallack Street near 8th Avenue when they spotted Thompson.
One of the older kids would later tell police they’d been talking about robbing someone before they saw a “random guy.”
A fatal encounter
The youths caught up with Thompson and Ben pointed a can of bear spray at the man.
Thompson handed over the backpack he was carrying, and Ayden drove the knife he was carrying into the man’s back once before the group of kids ran.
Thompson stumbled and screamed, drawing the attention of his aunt with whom he’d been staying nearby. Her 911 call brought police and paramedics, but it was no use. Efforts to save him failed.
The robbery and stabbing was caught on video, which would later traumatize another of Thompson’s sisters. She told a pre-sentence report writer she thinks about Thompson every day. She watched the final moments of the brother she went to for advice and considered a role model. The final moments of a man she viewed as a hardworking father that deeply loved his young son.
While both Ayden and Ben were initially charged with murder, both pleaded guilty to manslaughter in agreements with the Crown and were sentenced on joint submissions. Provincial court judges heard the agreed facts, referenced above, as read by Crown prosecutor Liam Fitz-Gerald.
On Sept. 19, 2025, Ayden was given a 36-month sentence (two years in custody and one year under community supervision), which court heard is the maximum available for a youth manslaughter sentence. On Nov. 25, 2025, Ben received a sentence of 34 months (690 days to be spent in custody and 345 days on community supervision.)
These were both Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision sentences, meant to focus on rehabilitation by connecting the convicted youths with specialized programming and services.
Children take shape
“If there ever was a case that you could put in a law school textbook to explain why you would have intensive rehabilitative sentence it would be, probably, this one,” defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock told court.
Hitchcock represented Ben, while defence lawyer Taylor Schlamp represented Ayden.
The upbringing of both youths was said to have been very difficult, with exposure to “criminality,” substance abuse, neglect, “family disruption,” and violence mentioned in lawyers’ submissions.
Judge Carol Snell said she has learned the history of many offenders and Ben’s was “certainly up there” with the most “disadvantaged and damaging” childhoods she’d ever considered.
Both convicted youths are Indigenous, and lawyers’ submissions referenced Gladue factors — issues that can affect an Indigenous offender, including the impact of colonialism, residential schools, racism, poverty and addiction.
Both youths were assessed as high risks to reoffend, according to prosecutor Michelle Korpan.
Korpan relayed terms applied to Ben by the writer of a psychological report, including “lack of empathy” and “callous.”
Hitchcock said he was heartened to learn Ben had made some “attempts” at empathy, though said it’s clear the teen is in need of serious interventions. That Thompson’s son is now without a father is something Hitchcock felt his client may find meaning in, given his own father’s death.
Ben offered no words to the court when offered the opportunity.
Ayden did, though through a statement read by his lawyer. Schlamp told Judge Michelle Brass the teen has difficulty reading aloud and had someone “scribe” the statement for him.
“When I first heard Charles had a son, I thought about his son a lot,” the statement said, from the teen who stabbed Thompson.
“I didn’t want his son to end up in foster care, and I didn’t want his son to grow up without a dad because of what I did.”
Nonetheless, the boy’s statement indicated an understanding of the finality of his actions, and he apologized to Thompson’s family, stating he does not understand why he committed the crime.
He’d heard Thompson was working on getting sober and that he participated in Indigenous traditions.
“If I could have met him in a different way, he would’ve been someone I respected,” the boy’s statement said.
The judge urged him to keep Thompson’s son in mind as he moves forward with his life.
“If you had the opportunity to speak with him in the future, what would you say?”
An obituary for Thompson posted online states he is survived by multiple children, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews and cousins.
