Testimony drawing to close at school shooter’s sentencing hearing – CP

Source: The Canadian Press
Jun 16, 2017 

MEADOW LAKE, Sask. _ After two weeks of testimony, a sentencing hearing is drawing to a close for a teenager who killed four people and injured seven others in the northern Saskatchewan community of La Loche.

The defence is expected to call its last witness to testify today at the hearing which is being held to determine if the teen will be sentenced as an adult or a youth.

He pleaded guilty last fall to two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder.

He killed brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine in a home in January 2016 before shooting up the high school where teacher Adam Wood and teacher’s aide Marie Janvier died.

The court is still waiting for a Gladue report, which examines an aboriginal offender’s background for the judge to use in making a sentencing decision, and then final submissions need to be made from the lawyers.

Defence lawyer Aaron Fox has said if the teen makes a statement, it will be today.

On Thursday, a psychiatrist testifying for the defence said the teen has symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and flashbacks which have led to suicidal thoughts.

Dr. Mansfield Mela testified in court that the flashbacks were “quite incapacitating” for the teen, who needed medication because “he couldn’t sleep from the images.”

“He was becoming more hopeless and the images were quite distressing to him,” Mela said.

Mela also said the teen has an intellectual disability, major depressive disorder and displays signs of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Court also heard this week from child psychiatrist Dr. Declan Quinn, who testified for the Crown, and said the teen “did not come across as being clearly developmentally delayed or slow.”

During the first week of the sentencing hearing, which was held in May, an agreed statement of facts detailed the shooter’s murderous path from a home in La Loche to the community’s high school.

The Fontaine brothers, who had just played video games with the killer the night before, were gunned down first.

Dayne, 17, pleaded for his life and said “I don’t want to die” before he was shot 11 times, including twice in the head. Drayden, 13, was shot twice in the head.

The shooter then posted messages online: “Just killed 2 ppl,” and “Bout to shoot ip the school.”

Surveillance footage captured his frightening walk through the halls, his shotgun raised, as students and staff ran in fear. Teacher Adam Wood managed to call 911 before being shot in the torso and then once again while on the ground. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

Teacher’s aide Marie Janvier was shot when she ran to get help for a substitute teacher who was wounded when the shooter fired through the window of a classroom door.

When police arrived, the shooter ran into a women’s washroom where he put down his weapon and gave himself up.

Court heard that the teen told a case worker at the youth detention centre where he has been held since shortly after the January 2016 shooting that he wished he had killed himself.

Many teachers, students and community members also told the court about how the shooting affected them.

INDEX: NATIONAL JUSTICE