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Mother of teen killed in backyard hit-and-run still hopeful charges will be laid

More than a month after 18-year-old Jade Belcourt was hit and killed by a truck that drove through a west Edmonton backyard, his mother is still hopeful charges will be laid.

Belcourt was in the backyard of his aunt's home on May 22 when a Ford F-150 was driven through the backyard following an altercation, according to the Edmonton Police Service.

Badly injured, the young man was transported to hospital where he died a short time later.

The truck was later recovered near Wetaskiwin. Investigators determined it was stolen.

Homicide detectives issued a warrant for the arrest of a 31-year-old man they believed was driving the truck. Police said he and the victim knew each other.

The man turned himself in to RCMP in Strathcona County on May 24.

The next day he was charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

He was also charged with possession of stolen property over $5,000, two counts of failing to stop at the scene of an accident and three counts of breach of recognizance.

But one day after the charges were laid, Edmonton police withdrew them. "New information has led the investigators to withdraw the charges, at this time," police said in a news release.

"I was mad. I was pissed off," Rhonda Belcourt, the victim's mother, said this week about the charges being dropped.

Belcourt was inside the home when the truck crashed through the fence.

She heard a crash and the truck drive away, she said.

When she looked outside, her older son Jordan was bleeding from a cut. Jade was on the ground suffering from a head injury.

"I had seen my son laying there and I didn't see any truck or anything," Belcourt said.

"I just started screaming and yelling. I couldn't even call 911. It was just horrible."

Her pain and sadness turned to anger when she was told that charges against the suspected driver of the truck that killed her son had been dropped.

Belcourt says detectives interviewed her son Jordan for a second time over the past couple of weeks.

Not on list of 2017 homicides

Homicide detectives continue to investigate, but police haven't released any other information, including any details of what happened in the altercation that preceded the fatal collision.

Police are not listing the case among the city's 2017 homicides, but will not explain why.

Belcourt says she's still hopeful that charges will be laid. Her boyfriend, Rick Dagg, feels the same way.

"There has to be justice somewhere, you would think. You can't let this kid die for nothing," Dagg said.

Jade Belcourt had enrolled in trade school but he died before his program started. He had planned to work in roofing construction.

"He was so quiet," his mother said. "He didn't want to be like his older brothers. He wanted to go to school."

@Travismcewancbc

​Travis.mcewan@cbc.ca