Saskatoon boy sentenced for role in 12-year-old’s accidental shooting

Article content

In a Massey Place bedroom in the early morning of Feb. 19, three young boys posted photos and videos of themselves holding cans of bear spray and a sawed-off rifle.

Moments later, one boy accidentally shot another in the head.

They were drinking stolen vodka and taking turns pointing the gun at each other “in an effort to appear as though they were gangsters,” Crown prosecutor Shaela Verma said while presenting an agreed statement of facts on Friday during sentencing for one of the boys.

Article content

The victim was 12 years old. At the time, his friends were 12 and 13. They can’t be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

The surviving boys, along with the older boy’s sister, initially hid the gun in a nearby yard and blamed the shooting on a person who wasn’t at the house, Saskatoon’s youth court heard.

The older boy later admitted they were “f***ing around and the gun went off.”

His older sister told police that he accidentally fired the gun. Their younger sister said she heard the gunshot, saw the victim on the floor and heard her brother say he “thought it was on safe mode.”

She said she had previously seen the gun under her sister’s bed and on her brother’s dresser. His parents, who were also home, provided videos and photos from their son’s phone of the younger boy pointing the gun at the victim, the facts state.

The boy, now 13, pleaded guilty last month to criminal negligence causing death.

In other videos, the older boy is seen loading the gun, which his sister had bought. One showed him pointing the gun at the victim — who was holding the phone — 50 seconds before police were called to the home in the 1000 block of Matheson Drive at 2:52 a.m.

Article content

Article content

The victim died shortly after. The alleged shooter is still before the court, charged with manslaughter.

“Any one of these kids could have been the shooter, and any one of them could have been the victim,” defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle said, adding that the word “senseless” doesn’t do it justice.

The victim’s mother listened in by phone and his two older sisters read their victim impact statements in court. They said their family has been torn apart by the death.

“He was running with older people who were using younger people as bait,” one sister told court. Wiping away tears, she said her little brother grew up “too fast,” but didn’t deserve what happened to him.

Lawyers proposed a two-year sentence divided into 16 months in secure custody and eight months of community supervision, on top of the boy’s year of enhanced remand credit. With pre-sentence custody, this is the maximum allowed under the YCJA for criminal negligence causing death — three years.

Judge Lisa Watson accepted the joint submission.

Pfefferle said his client was apprehended as an infant and lived mostly with his aunt. They had a good relationship, but he lacked supervision and had “prolonged” access to alcohol and Xanax, Pfefferle told court.

Article content

He said the boy wanted to take responsibility “almost immediately.”

Nobody else appeared in court on his behalf, and he didn’t make a statement when given the chance.

Verma said it’s concerning that the boy told a pre-sentence report writer that “The laws are fair, but we don’t follow them,” and that using weapons is “fun.”

Two months after being released on conditions, he was re-arrested for having two cans of bear spray in his waistband, Verma said. He received a nine-month probation order for the weapons offences, which will run at the same time as a 12-month probation order that begins after his two-year sentence.

The boy requires structure and supervision, Verma said, adding that the sentence will help reduce his risk while protecting the public.

“Gun violence is happening and it’s happening to children. How many kids have to die before we realize this is a problem?” the victim’s sister asked.

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.

With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content