Shooting of Siksika man in fleeing pickup truck was no fluke: prosecutor

Accused didn't intentionally hit vehicle carrying four friends, defence argues

Murder suspect Brandon Giffen's claim he shot at a moving pickup from the hip was a failed attempt at disguising the truth that he intentionally fired at the truck, a prosecutor said Friday.

And Crown lawyer Ron Simenik said that intentional act by the Strathmore man on a dark, wintry Alberta highway more than two years ago amounted to murder.

Simenik also said Justice Robert Hall should find Giffen was in the act of criminally harassing the four occupants of the fleeing truck as he and his brother, Kody, chased it from the southern Alberta town.

That act would elevate the murder of Siksika man Kristian Ayoungman to first-degree, the prosecutor said.

Simenik noted Giffen told police he was only trying to scare off the pickup's occupants after an earlier altercation between his brother's group and the three men in the truck outside a Strathmore bar, claiming he randomly fired with his high-powered hunting rifle sitting on his hip.

“He tries selling this idea that this was a careless, unaimed, fluke shot from the hip,” the prosecutor told Hall.

Giffen is charged in connection with the March 17, 2019 death of Ayoungman, who was a passenger in the pickup, when Giffen shot a bullet from the side of Hwy. 817 south of Strathmore at the truck.

The bullet, fired from a significant distance, penetrated the pickup's tailgate, went through a hockey bag in the box of the truck and pierced the cab, striking Ayoungman in the back of his chest as he sat behind driver Breeana Crawler.

Crawler, Ayoungman, Brooker Prettyyoungman and Ryley Mcmaster were fleeing Giffen after he emerged from his apartment with his hunting rifle after the two sides gathered in the parking lot of his residence following a fight outside a nearby bar.

When the four Siksika First Nation residents took flight, the Giffens, with Kody at the wheel, chased them out of town.

Simenik said Brandon Giffen was angry the group brought their dispute to his building, where his wife and children were sleeping.

And he rejected suggestions the accused was simply trying to scare the group off when he fired the fatal shot.

“In terms of aiming, if he simply wanted to scare them with a muzzle flash as he suggested at one point, or perhaps the sound of the

He tries selling this idea that this was a careless, unaimed, fluke shot from the hip.

discharge, he could've aimed that gun in a million other directions. He could have aimed it in the air, he could have aimed it in the ditch, he could have aimed it in the field.”

Defence lawyer Derek Jugnauth argued on Thursday Giffen didn't intentionally shoot at the truck.

Hall will hand down his decision on July 26.