Shooting case: Mountie says he feared for his life

THOM P SON , Ma n. •A Manitoba Mountie charged with manslaughter in an on-duty shooting says he thought he was going to be run over before he fired his weapon.

“That was the only thing I could do to save my own life at that point,” Const. Abram Letkeman testified at his Court of Queen’s Bench trial on Wednesday.

The officer said he shot twice into a Jeep driven by Steven Campbell in 2015. The vehicle was still moving toward him so he continued to fire, Letkeman said. “I was shooting as fast as I could. I was fighting for my life.”

Letkeman, 37, shot Campbell, 39, at least nine times.

There were two bullets lodged in the man’s body — one in his jaw and another in his shoulder. Another bullet went through his open mouth.

There were four other people in the Jeep besides Campbell.

Letkeman testified he saw the Jeep being driven erratically shortly after bars had closed in Thompson, Man.

He told court that he had attempted a traffic stop for a suspected impaired driver in a parking lot, but the Jeep slowly drove away, went over a curb and continued onto a road. The officer started to pursue it.

The officer hit the Jeep and it spun around, but then it drove off again, eventually ending up on a trail for all-terrain vehicles, he said. The officer told court the Jeep came to a stop when he unintentionally T-boned the Jeep on the trail.

He said he walked in front of the Jeep to get to the driver’s door, and that’s when the vehicle moved toward him. He said his foot was run over by the front tire as he was firing his weapon.