Advocates for survivors of gender-based violence rally outside BC RCMP detachment

Eight days after a woman was fatally shot in Coquitlam, advocates for survivors of gender-based violence are calling for all levels of government to end femicide.

On Friday, the Battered Women’s Support Services announced it would be rallying outside the Coquitlam RCMP detachment in honour of 39-year-old Stephanie Forster.

In a statement, BWSS alleges Forster was killed by her ex-husband Gianluigi Derossi, who reportedly had been ordered not to communicate with her or go to her residence.

“(BWSS) is heartbroken and outraged at the killing of Stephanie Forster by her ex-husband Gianluigi Derossi…Forster had a family law protection order, but Derossi breached it and killed her anyway,” reads Friday’s release.

Police have not confirmed if Derossi is the same man who died by suicide in Surrey on Dec.10 after shooting himself during a traffic stop. Investigators have identified him as a potential suspect in Forster’s death, however.

Members of the Surrey Women's Centre also rallied in Forster's honour at 100th Avenue and 152 Street, the site of the suicide that's possibly linked to her death.

Data by Statistics Canada shows that in 2021, 90 per cent of homicide victims were killed by an intimate partner, 76 per cent of whom were women and girls

“It should alarm us all that rates of family violence and intimate partner violence are increasing across Canada. This is an absolute state of emergency,” Angela Marie MacDougall, the executive director BWSS, wrote in the statement.

This is a developing story and will be updated.