PRINCE ALBERT — The murder of 52-year-old Trevor LaPlante, a well-known individual in Prince Albert on Monday, July 22, has caused Jeff Perehudoff of Prince Albert to take action.
When the accused in the case, Michael Bird, makes his next court appearance at Provincial Court on Wednesday, Aug. 7, Perehudoff has organized a rally beginning at the courthouse.
"I'm holding this rally to [raise] awareness and to bring our community back together and to fight for the proper justice for Trevor. We have let our streets go downhill, and we're all suffering for it now,” Perehudoff said.
Perehudoff explained that he wanted to organize the rally to make a difference.
“So, I created this rally and hope that our community would come together,” he said.
LaPlante, 52, is being remembered for his decades of work at McDonald's and Burger King, and his positivity that could be seen at many community events, especially at Prince Albert Raiders games
"He was a very well-known iconic person of our community and was well-loved by everybody,” Perehudoff said.
The rally will start at Prince Albert Provincial Court at 8 a.m. and last until the second appearance of Bird at 10 a.m.
"We will take our rally and walk over to City Hall and rally there for a while,” Perehudoff said.
LaPlante’s sister Charlene Miller is on city council and Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne is among LaPlante’s many friends. Perehudoff said that taking the rally to City Hall was to make everyone more aware.
"I was more or less just going there to make our voices heard with everybody,” Perehudoff said.
“ We're just going there to rally, to clean up our streets at this point,” he said.
We just want support and help and something done, this is for Trevor and this is for our streets. Just more or less to get our voices heard,” he said.
According to Perehudoff, his Facebook event has 236 people interested with 34 confirmed and most of his coworkers are going to attend.
"The word is getting out in the community and more people are coming to me saying hey so, so it's going to be there and then we're coming so It's getting fairly big,”
According to Prince Albert Police, A 52-year-old man was found deceased on the 500 block of 18th Street East on July 22, and was later identified as LaPlante.
Parkland Ambulance was originally on the scene after a report of a man not conscious and not breathing. The Prince Albert Police Service were called to the scene and the man was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Birdm, who is 33-years-old charged with second-degree murder and indignity to a body. He made his first court appearance at Provincial Court on July 26. He is next scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 7.
Pereduhoff said that the death of Laplante jolted Prince Albert.
“Everybody was hurt by this and put off by it, and the good people in our community are suffering and dying,” he said.
"Everybody, even talking to the police force and they're upset that they knew Trevor too, everybody knew him,” Perehudoff said.`
LaPlante’s funeral was on July 27 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. People were encouraged to wear Prince Albert Raiders items at the funeral.
Perehudoff said that the death was a complete shock.
"Nobody was expecting this. And he was such a good guy too. And it's a very senseless murder. These things don't need to be happening. If we could have better support on our streets, maybe if we could come together as a community and do Neighborhood Watch again,” Perehudoff said.
He said that he hopes that a rally like this can start a dialogue about solutions.
"Anything just to be present and be out there and trying to stop these people from doing the things they do,” he added.
He also encouraged Dionne to come and support the rally next Wednesday,
"I would really like to see the Mayor come down and support this also,” he said.
The rally will begin at 8 a.m. at the Prince Albert Provincial Court.
