OTTAWA — Police have charged a 35-year-old man with second-degree murder after a woman was fatally stabbed Saturday during a domestic dispute in a Riverside Drive apartment building.

Tamrat Gebere, who stands accused of stabbing the mother of a young girl to death, was to appear in court Monday. Court documents identify the victim as Aster Kassa.

A baby girl was taken away by the Children’s Aid Society after a police officer held her under the shade of a tree as her mother’s death was investigated. It is Ottawa’s seventh homicide of the year.

Abdul Awad, the owner of a convenience store in the apartment building, said he saw the victim and her baby just half an hour before police officers came rushing into the building.

He said he will never forget the young mother, who he described as being in her mid to late 20s, and her baby.

“Never in my whole life have I seen someone so concentrated on just their child like that: not 99-per-cent concentrated; she was 100-per-cent concentrated on her baby,” he said. “She held her so close.”

Awad said he was taking a break from work when he sat down across from the victim and her baby in a lounge area in the apartment’s lobby.

He told the victim he thought her daughter was cute, but, he said, the victim didn’t respond.

She just continued to hug and kiss her baby, he said Sunday night.

“It looked like she knew something was going to happen to her and she wanted to spend all her time holding and loving her daughter.”

Awad said he saw police bring the baby, who he said looked to be about four to six months old, outside after they responded to her mother’s stabbing. He said he gave them water for the girl.

He said he is shocked and saddened by what happened.