Shooting suspect nailed for arson
A man tied to at least three shootings in the South Okanagan— two of them targeting RCMP vehicles — has been convicted of setting fire to an Oliver pharmacy after one such incident two years ago that saw the thirsty culprit seal his own fate.
Steven Marlo Gallagher, 30, was convicted of arson and break and enter at the Remedy’s RX shop on Fairview Road in Oliver early on May 15, 2021. The decision was handed down Friday in B.C. Supreme Court in Penticton following a judge-alone trial.
The case hinged on the Crown’s ability to prove the identity of the arsonist, who can be seen in glimpses of poor-quality surveillance video from the pharmacy, which lost most of its inventory but was spared serious structural damage in the blaze.
Testimony from three veteran RCMP officers helped make the Crown’s case — as did Gallagher himself.
“Throughout the sequence, the arsonist’s hoodie completely obscures his face. Even walking back towards the front door, his facial features are impossible to discern,” wrote Justice David Crerar in his decision.
“As he approaches the front door, however, the temptation of grabbing a refreshing postarson drink proves too great. He turns towards the drinks cooler, and steals a beverage. With that turn he provides a decent view of his face, from eyes to chin, both straighton, as well as at half-profile. He then leaves the pharmacy through the smashed door.”
The Crown theorized Gallagher was bent on settling a score with police when he drove to downtown Oliver around 4 a.m. and, after firing shots into an RCMP cruiser outside the detachment, drove another 500 metres to a park near the pharmacy. Once there, Gallagher set fire to the truck, then walked over the pharmacy, tossed a rock through the shop’s window and set fire inside.
Gallagher was mad, the Crown suggested, about an incident at his home three hours earlier when two RCMP officers showed up to investigate a report of shots being fired.
While he was initially co-operative and invited the Mounties in for a tour of the home, the mood turned and Gallagher “became somewhat agitated, and ordered and escorted the officers off his property,” wrote Crerar.
Three hours later, those same officers were finishing their shift at the Oliver RCMP detachment when they heard shots outside. They went out and saw an older-model, darkgreen Ford Ranger pickup truck heading towards Main Street.
Police had previously seen the truck, with its unique double cab, parked at Gallagher’s home. Surveillance video from various locations around the time of the incident shows the truck, ownership of which couldn’t be traced, leaving Gallagher’s property and then making its way downtown.
Defence counsel James Pennington suggested in closing arguments that RCMP officers had a grudge against Gallagher and decided he was their No. 1 suspect before looking at any evidence, alleging “group-think” and “confirmation bias” on the part of Mounties.
Justice Crerar wouldn’t have it.
“The defence’s argument would bar recognition evidence wherever surveillance video shows an ostensible crime, or wherever police, reasonably, have initial suspicions as to the culprit,” wrote the judge.
“It would particularly bar such evidence in a smaller population centre such as Oliver, with a finite number of people who could have committed such a crime, and where recognition evidence would often be more reliable.”
Gallagher is behind bars on this and other matters and will be sentenced at a later date.
The judge noted Gallagher is a member of the Osoyoos Indian Band and the OIB will be invited “as an organization or individuals, elders or otherwise, to provide written or oral submissions or statements with respect to Mr. Gallagher’s sentencing.
Gallagher was not charged with shooting at the Oliver RCMP cruiser during the sequence of events leading up to the arson.
And he’s not been charged in at least two other June 2022 shootings in which court documents have identified him as the RCMP’s main suspect.
The first incident on June 26 saw shots fired after a confrontation between two groups of men in downtown Penticton.
No one was hurt, but Gallagher is believed to have pulled the trigger after following some of the men home from the Barking Parrot Pub, according to an application for a search warrant filed by the RCMP that was previously reported upon by The Herald.
That same warrant also identifies Gallagher as the person who fired upwards of 22 shots at police on June 28 as officers investigated a suspected impaired driver on the Penticton Indian Reserve. No one was hurt but an RCMP vehicle suffered damage.
Gallagher was, however, charged in connection with a July 1, 2022, shooting at an Osoyoos beach that sent a Maple Ridge man to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Gallagher has pleaded not guilty to three counts — aggravated assault, pointing a firearm and unlawfully discharging a firearm — and is awaiting trial.