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Teens plead guilty to murder conspiracy

Planned shooting rampage at schools, church

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 09/30/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Two troubled teens admitted on Tuesday to planning a random shooting rampage inside three Winnipeg-area schools and a church

The 17-year-old boy and his 18-year-old girlfriend -- who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because they were youths at the time -- pleaded guilty in a brief court appearance to conspiracy to commit murder.

Police arrested the pair in January 2008 and said they planned to "harm a number of persons at random."

"This included students, adults, church parishioners and pretty much anyone that was going to get in their way," police spokeswoman Const. Jacqueline Chaput said at the time of the arrests.

The teens had already stockpiled weapons, but police say plans unravelled when the would-be killers made separate suicide bids that landed them in hospital and resulted in admissions to mental health officials and police.

"There would have been a large quantity of people harmed at the same time," said Chaput.

Sentencing was adjourned Tuesday until later this fall. The Crown told court both accused have agreed to be raised to adult court. The maximum sentence is life in prison. There is no mandatory minimum sentence.

Both teens have been in custody without bail for 20 months. They have no prior criminal records.

Crown attorney Susan Baragar said Tuesday the murder conspiracy relates to planned attacks at Fort Richmond and Lorette collegiates, the University of Manitoba and Church of the Rock.

Family members granted exclusive interviews to the Free Press last year. The mother of the young man said he had been "in a very dark place" for several months and resisting help from his family, school and medical professionals. The boy had been experiencing a wave of emotional problems since she separated from his father about a year ago, the mother said. He went to live with his dad, while his two siblings stayed with her.

The mother said she took her son to some counselling sessions, but he stopped going. The staff at his high school has also been "top-notch" in working with him on his emotional issues, she said.

The boy's father described him as a very artistic, polite and well-respected son and student who was prone to emotional outbursts as a result of Asperger syndrome, which is a form of autism.

Things reached a crisis point on Jan. 7, 2008 when the boy swallowed laundry detergent after getting into a fight with his girlfriend, his father said. Police came calling two days later in response to a Crime Stoppers tip about four rifles, a pellet gun and bullets the boy had allegedly stolen weeks earlier from a relative's home in Portage la Prairie and then hidden inside his father's house.

Around the same time, the father confronted his son's girlfriend about the stolen guns. She responded later that night by slashing her wrists in a suicide bid and had to be rushed to hospital. It was days later that the family, along with police, learned of the alleged intentions for the weapons.

"My son told me 'I only wanted to hurt myself, Dad,' but I don't know what to believe," the father said.

Mark Hughes, the pastor at Church of the Rock, told the Free Press he was shocked to learn his congregation was being targeted for a massacre. He knew the young male suspect as a boy who had found solace in the church, only to stop attending the church several months before his arrest.

"He's one of those kind of dark, brooding individuals ... We figured he was probably a bit of a troubled kid looking for some help," Hughes said.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 30, 2009 A5

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