A man who found a boy beaten by an older child on a southern Saskatchewan reserve says he held the child's hand until an ambulance arrived.
Six-year-old Lee Bonneau was found with head injuries in a wooded area on the Kahkewistahaw reserve in 2013 and later died.
Lee was last seen walking with a 10-year-old boy outside the reserve's recreation complex while his foster mother was playing bingo.
Thomas Alexson told a coroner's inquest into Lee's death how he searched for the boy and heard "some wheezing and some moaning" which led him to the scene.
"He had swelling on the side of his head," he said Wednesday.
Alexson said he had been working at the bingo hall when he learned the boy was missing and launched a search with his cousin.
"I started screaming, 'I found him, I found him,"' he said.
Alexson said he covered Lee with his sweater and waited with him for help.
"I just held his hand all the way through it," he said, crying.
Saskatchewan's children's advocate determined that the 10-year-old boy who killed Lee had behavioural issues and probably shouldn't have been in the community unsupervised.
Because he was under 12, he could not be charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Alexson added that he knew the 10-year-old boy and interacted with him regularly, calling him "very polite."
The inquest has also heard testimony from police and Lee's foster mother as well as both of his biological parents.
In a report released last year, children's advocate Bob Pringle said the 10-year-old boy didn't receive the help he needed.
Pringle said his investigation found nine child protection concerns reported to the Yorkton Tribal Council Child and Family Services, but as far his office could determine, two concerns were never investigated. Investigation on some of the others was delayed by months, he said.
He also said the RCMP had alerted the agency to the boy's behavioural issues. Mounties believed he was involved in a break and enter in May 2011 when a pregnant dog and her unborn pups were killed.
