A Winnipeg mother who stayed at the same hotel in Dominican Republic where a man was shot in front of a group of Manitoba students said she and her children felt safe when they took the same trip last year.
Lisa Desilets supervised the trip last year. She said she’s shocked by the news of what happened this time.
“I felt sick to my sick to stomach knowing exactly where that was occurring and deeply saddened," Desilets said.
The students, 18 in total, along with eight chaperons and teachers, were in the country to do charity work at a school and orphanage near Puerto Plata. On the first night, they were awoken in the middle of the night to a violent robbery.
The owner of the hotel, a Canadian man, confronted the robbers, who shot him several times. The man survived and is recovering in hospital.
Compound had guards, walls, barbed wire
Desilets said the place was modest, because the group wanted to fit in with locals as much as possible, but says she and the students felt safe. The hotel had a guard, a gate and barbed wire to keep it secure.
Desilets said she now believes the suspects had picked up on students coming to the same hotel year after year.
"I would suspect that's probably what happened,” she said. “I mean it's a small population. We wouldn't go unnoticed, I'm sure and typically because, it was a repetitive, ongoing program, people would come to know that the Canadians were coming."
Humanitarian trip "changes you as a person": former student
Junior Kwilu is a student who went on the trip last year. He said he's thankful none of the students or chaperones got hurt, but is sad this year's students had their trip cut short.
“The kids didn't have the opportunity to have an amazing experience, ‘cause it changes you as a person when you go there,” he said. “You see the kids don't have the same opportunities as we do in Canada, just the fact to help, to raise money, to go there, it's sad for the kids, and hopefully, if we can do it again next year, that would be great.”
School division weighing options
The school division is evaluating whether trips like this to Dominican Republic will continue in the future. Alain Laberge, superintendent of the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine, said the division is looking at what happened and gathering information.
“We're not a big school division, but we all know each other and it was all everyone's problem,” he said.
The school division said grief counsellors will on hand at both schools affected by the shooting, École régionale Saint-Jean-Baptiste and École Pointe-des-Chênes.
