A Prince Albert man is one of four people RCMP has charged with second degree murder and criminal negligence causing death in connection to the 2011 death of Christian Bird of the Ahtahkakoop First Nation.

“Well at this point the investigation is come to the point where we’re prepared to lay charges and we’ve charged three young offenders and we’ve charged one adult male from the Prince Albert area for the murder of Christian Bird,” said RCMP Corporal Rob King.

The RCMP has been investigating the death of Bird for 17 months, but it was just recently that new information was discovered.

“The investigation has gotten to the point where we’re comfortable and we have the evidence now to lay those charges. Our members were out on the Ahtahkakoop yesterday speaking to people and getting some further information and at this point charges have been laid.”

As for the cause of death, King is remaining tight-lipped.

“Right now that isn’t something we’re going to release. We’ll hold that off and it will be a part of evidence at trial,” King said.

Twenty-five-year-old Bird was found May 1, 2011 in Sandy Lake holding on to a piece of ice. A passerby noticed the body about 50 feet in the water and notified RCMP. An officer who was responding to a related disturbance pulled Bird to shore where he later died.

Three of the four people charged cannot be named because they were youths at the time of the offence.

The fourth person charged is 19-year-old Prince Albert man Dannie Justin Knife.