New details emerge in homicide of Sask. 13-month-old Tanner Brass

Chris Bird, known as "Jimmy" on the streets of Prince Albert, Sask., had spent the night in police holding cells.

He'd sobered up and was about to be released when he heard piercing screams coming from the women's detention area down the hall.

"My baby! Help my baby! My baby!"

Bird said loud noises are common in the holding cells, but that these repeated calls were particularly urgent and clear.

"Boy, that girl is yelling. She wanted her baby," Bird recalled in a recent interview.

Bird believes the woman was Kyla Frenchman, pleading with officers to check on her 13-month-old son, Tanner.

Police didn't make the five-minute drive back to check on Tanner until it was too late. Tanner's father, Kaij Brass, was arrested on site and charged with second-degree murder.

Frenchman has said she pleaded with officers in the cells to rescue Tanner, but Bird is now the first person to state publicly that he heard those cries for help.

Bird said he's speaking out despite any "problems" it may cause him. He said he consulted an elder, who told him it's important for the truth to come out.

CBC News accompanied Bird to the police station and obtained a written record of his incarceration. The document confirms Bird and Frenchman were both in the cells on the morning of Feb. 10.

"It's good there's a witness that can validate what she said. It's important for the public to know what went on," said Frenchman's lawyer, Eleanore Sunchild.

"She just wanted her baby to be safe, like any mother would, and now we have a witness to verify that," said Bobby Cameron, Chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents Saskatchewan's First Nations.

CBC News also interviewed nearly a dozen current and former Prince Albert police officers, members of the board of police commissioners and other officials over the past month. Most agreed to speak anonymously, as they were not authorized to discuss ongoing investigations or private meetings.

They raise new questions about the Baby Tanner case and, more generally, about the Prince Albert Police Service and its leadership. They echoed earlier calls that the changes need to start at the top, starting with the removal of Chief Jon Bergen.