LA LOCHE SHOOTER
Final arguments in sentencing
Closing arguments in the sentencing hearing of the teen who killed four people and injured seven others in La Loche last year are scheduled to get underway today in Meadow Lake.
The shooter was 17 on Jan. 22, 2016 when he shot two people in a home and then opened fire inside La Loche Community School. His identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Crown prosecutor Lloyd Stang is expected to argue that the teen, who was just weeks away from his 18th birthday at the time of the offences, should be sentenced as an adult. The defence is expected to argue for a youth sentence.
Judge Janet McIvor sat through a week of witness testimony in May and another in June. Closing arguments are scheduled for one day. A date for McIvor to deliver her decision has not been set, but she said in June that it will be delivered in La Loche.
If sentenced as an adult, the teen will face life in prison and his name can be published. A youth sentence carries a maximum term of six years in custody and four years under supervision in the community.
The teen pleaded guilty last October to two counts of seconddegree murder in the deaths of brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine, two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of teacher’s aide Marie Janvier and teacher Adam Wood, and seven counts of attempted murder.
Forty-six people affected by the tragedy submitted victim impact statements to the court, several describing ongoing struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. Some talked about being robbed of feelings of safety, continuing fears of loud noises and relationships that shattered as people struggled to cope with their grief and trauma.
A psychiatrist who testified for the Crown said the shooter does not have a psychosis and cannot be conclusively diagnosed with any mental disorders.
However, defence psychiatrist Dr. Mansfield Mela said the teen has several mental disorders and his brain functions “are not adequate or optimal.”
Over the course of the sentencing hearing this spring and summer, court heard the shooter was a quiet person who struggled in school and had been researching school shootings in the days leading up to the incident.
A videotaped interview of the shooter talking with an RCMP officer after his guilty plea suggests the teen regretted shooting the Fontaine brothers, who “weren’t part of the plan,” but that he didn’t have similar remorse for his actions in the school.
The teen read a prepared statement to court in June, becoming emotional as he addressed each of the people he shot. He apologized for ruining their lives and told those he hurt that he hadn’t set out to harm them specifically.
“I’m sorry I shot at you. I don’t know what I was thinking that day. You didn’t deserve to get shot,” he said to a student who needed skin and muscle grafts after the shooting.
“I didn’t know you, but you were not a target,” he said to another student who was injured. “You just happened to be there at the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m sorry.”