RCMP gun properly stored: AG

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This article was published 09/08/2016 (3359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The father of a Winnipeg teen shot with a stolen RCMP-issued gun said he’s not convinced by recent court documents giving a strongly different account of how the Mountie’s firearm was stolen.

It was repeatedly reported at the time of the incident in October 2015 that the gun was visible in the back of the officer’s police vehicle, violating RCMP firearms policy, and the vehicle was parked overnight at his home when it was broken into.

But the new document, which gives the account of the Mountie at the middle of the controversy, said the gun was stolen after thieves broke into the officer’s house in the middle of the night, stole the keys to his RCMP vehicle, and then used the keys to reach weapons inside a locked box in the vehicle.

Corey Vanderaa, speaking to the Free Press Tuesday evening, said he couldn’t offer extensive comment on the new document until he consulted with his lawyer. But he did have this to say:

“You want my statement? The whole thing sounds a little fishy,” he said. “I call bulls—. That’s my statement.”

The RCMP officer’s account is contained in a response by Canada’s attorney general on behalf of the RCMP, responding to a lawsuit seeking damages for Calli Vanderaa, the teen who was shot, and her single father, Vanderaa. The attorney general has also taken legal action against two men accused in the shooting.

Calli, then 16, had been with five of her friends, sitting in the rear passenger seat of a car parked in the Autumnwood Drive Mac’s convenience store parking lot, when a man she’d never met walked up and fired the gun through the back window.

The bullet went into Calli’s chest, puncturing her lung and damaging her colon and spleen.

Two men, Matthew Wilfred McKay and Matthew Andrew Miles, were charged in connection to the shooting and the theft of the gun. Both suspects are in custody and have not filed statements of defence.

The Vanderaas sued the police, alleging in their statement of claim the sergeant violated RCMP firearms policy and left his police belt “replete with firearm, taser and baton, visible on the back seat of the car.”

But that’s not what happened, according to the government’s statement of defence, which says the gun was safely stored until thieves broke in.

Sgt. Chris McCuen’s nine-millimetre Smith & Wesson handgun was stowed inside a locked box bolted to the floor of his RCMP SUV, which was locked, equipped with a security alarm and parked in a fenced area of his backyard while he was off-duty on Oct. 23, 2015, as McCuen told his supervisor, the recently filed statement says. McCuen was authorized to have the vehicle at home.

But at some point that night or the next morning, McCuen’s home was broken into and his keys were stolen while he and his family slept, the statement says. The SUV was unlocked with the keys and the gun and police utility belt were also stolen.

On the morning of Oct. 24, McCuen reported the theft to his supervisor, who told him to inform the Winnipeg Police Service.

At the time of the shooting, the RCMP said it could not comment on how the sergeant’s gun was stored. It said it would conduct an internal investigation into the matter. But that hasn’t been done, according to the statement of defence.

“In order to protect the integrity of the Winnipeg Police Service investigations and resulting criminal proceedings relating to the theft of the firearm and the shooting of the plaintiff Calli Vanderaa, the RCMP has delayed conducting its own internal investigation relating to McCuen’s storage of the firearm.

As a result, the RCMP have limited knowledge of the facts beyond those pled in this statement of defence,” the statement reads.

The attorney general launched a third-party claim against McKay and Miles, the men charged with attempted murder, theft and several weapons offences, claiming they are responsible for any damages the Vanderaas are seeking.

Vanderaa said he will offer further comment after meeting with his lawyer next week.

“At the end of the day I want the truth,” Vanderaa said. “…I’m not happy about what happened. And there’s no reason for it to happen to my daughter or anybody’s child.”

Vanderaa said his daughter is dealing with ongoing pain and mental-health issues, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Calli has taken up boxing and is embracing it, he said, but the lingering effects of the shooting make it difficult.

“One day she’s a strong, tough girl, you know, she’s boxing, she’s doing everything she’s supposed to be doing,” he said. “And the next day she’s not.”

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“What do you do, as a dad, what do you do?” he added.

Reached Tuesday evening, the family’s lawyer expressed no concern about the statement of defence.

“I am undeterred,” said Robert Tapper. “The document does not worry me.”

— with files from Aidan Geary

Twitter: @thatkatiemaykatie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Katie May
Multimedia producer

Katie May is a multimedia producer for the Free Press.

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