Gunman gets eight years
One of three Prince George men charged in connection to a brazen daylight drive-by shooting and highspeed police chase on Oct. 8, 2020, was sentenced to a total of eight years in jail, less two years for time served.
Bradley Andre Ouelette plead guilty to two counts of reckless discharge of a firearm, obstructing a police office and a number of offences related to the unauthorized possession of a firearm. Ouelette has a criminal record and was prohibited from possessing firearms at the time of the attack. In addition to the jail time, he received a lifetime prohibition on owning firearms and other weapons.
“Mr. Ouelette engaged in a planned drive-by shooting. He then shot at an occupied police vehicle,” the Crown prosecutor said. “It is difficult to overstate how serious these offences are.”
According to an agreed statement of facts read into the record by the Crown, Ouelette and his two co-accused - Eric Vern West and Kenneth Ricardo Munroe – set out in a silver Chevrolet Malibu to shoot at the home of a rival gang member in the 200-block of Bellos Street.
At around 11:37 a.m. the trio pulled up by the home and Ouelette fired two shots at the house. Shotgun pellets were found embedded in the window frame of the home, but nobody was injured.
As the car drove away, an RCMP officer spotted them, because they seemed suspicious and turned his cruiser around to follow them, the Crown lawyer said. The driver of the Malibu took off “at a high rate of speed” down Fifth Avenue.
A police chase ensued, as the Malibu dodged around traffic and turned onto Highway 97, the Crown lawyer told the court. A second officer took over the pursuit, which turned down 10th Avenue.
The Malibu hit the curb and crashed through the front yard fence of a home on McBride Crescent. Ouelette, Munroe and West bailed out of the vehicle as a police cruiser pulled up.
Ouelette fired his shotgun at the police cruiser, and birdshot pellets were found embedded in the cruiser’s windshield. The officer wasn’t injured.
“I am very sorry for what I did,” Ouellette told the court. “I understand it endangered a lot of people, other than the intended people.”
Ouelette has been in custody since his arrest and spent 484 days in jail before being sentenced.
He is the first of three men accused in the incident to be sentenced. Munroe is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, and a trial for West is scheduled later this year.