Sask. farmer not guilty in death of Indigenous man
BATTLEFORD, SASK.— A jury has found a Saskatchewan farmer not guilty in the fatal shooting of an Indigenous man.
Gerald Stanley was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Colten Boushie from Red Pheasant First Nation in August 2016. The jury deliberated for 13 hours before reaching its decision.
Stanley, 56, turned and looked into the gallery after the verdict came down while Boushie’s family and friends gasped and sobbed.
Outside court, Boushie’s uncle Alvin Baptiste said there is no justice for his nephew. “How First Nations are treated in the justice system is not right,” he said.
“A white jury came out with a verdict of not guilty of Gerald Stanley, who shot and killed my nephew. This is how they treat us First Nations people. It is not right. Something has to be done about this — the government, Justin Trudeau, we asked you to give us Indigenous people justice.”
Crown prosecutor Bill Burge said it was clearly an emotional case for the jury. “One side is very unhappy tonight, but there is never any winner in a case like this,” he said.
The case has exposed racial tensions in Saskatchewan and there were immediate pleas for calm.
“To all of those who are broken today, please, please remain peaceful,” said Kimberly Jonathan, a vicechief with Saskatchewan’s Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.
“It’s not us against them,” the vicechief said. “We felt unsafe then and we’re still unsafe. Someone can say it’s an accident to shoot any one of us and they are found not guilty.”
The trial heard that Boushie was shot in the head while he was sitting in an SUV that had been driven onto Stanley’s farm near Biggar, Sask.
The driver of the SUV testified the group had been drinking during the day and tried to break into a truck on a neighbouring farm, but went to the Stanley property in search of help with a flat tire.
Stanley’s son testified that he and his father heard an ATV start up and they thought it was being stolen.
Stanley testified he fired warning shots to scare the group off. He said that the fatal shot occurred when he reached into the SUV to grab the keys and his gun “just went off.”