Police want ‘strong message’ for pen shooter

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This article was published 24/04/2017 (3418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who shot a pen gun at police officers as he led them on a high-speed chase awaits his sentence as the police service urges the court to send “a strong message” to those who assault police.

Anthony Joseph Raposo, 53, was found guilty of 17 offences, including three counts of attempted murder for shooting at a gas station clerk and two police officers during an armed robbery on Jan. 16, 2016. At his sentencing hearing Monday, Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft called for a 20-year sentence, while defence lawyer Mike Cook asked for half of that. Both agreed Raposo was lucky to be alive after he aimed .22-calibre bullets at officers who pursued him and returned fire.

The officers weren’t hurt and Raposo avoided being shot. He was eventually taken down by a police dog after he tried to run from his crashed car at the end of the chase. “Man, if I had one of your guns, I could have killed you all,” Raposo said after his arrest. 

Vanderhooft said Raposo shouldn’t benefit from leniency on attempted murder charges just because of his bad aim.

“The fact that they all survived and nobody was injured is simply happenstance,” he said.

Cook had argued during a one-week trial earlier this year that Raposo did not have the intent necessary to be convicted of attempted murder, but the judge disagreed.

“Mr. Raposo came close to being killed and the officers were no doubt terrified,” Cook said Monday. “I think Mr. Raposo was shocked at his behaviour, once he had time to reflect.”

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey has reserved her decision in the case until next month, which prompted the police union and the police service to present a show of support for the two officers shot at that night.

In a community impact statement filed in court, John Burchill, the Winnipeg Police Service’s manager of strategic issues, wrote that the number of reported assaults against police officers has increased 61 per cent over the past 10 years, from 240 to 409 annually. Assaults against Winnipeg police officers rose 16 per cent from 2015 to 2016.

“It is important that a strong message is sent that assaulting or attempting to assault or kill a police officer by any means is not acceptable if we are to reverse the continued upward trend in assaults against officers,” Burchill wrote. 

Winnipeg Police Association President Maurice Sabourin, who was present in court along with the two affected officers and other members of the police service Monday, wrote in his statement that firearm-related assaults on police are still rare. 

“When this incident occurred, it shook our membership to its core,” he wrote. “This incident has seriously impacted the morale of our members and has served to reinforce the extreme danger each call may pose to them.”

Raposo, who suffers from bipolar disorder, said he was having a manic episode when he went to a Petro-Canada gas bar in the 1700 block of Kenaston Boulevard around 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 16, 2016 and committed armed robbery to pay back a debt. He fired a small, single-shot pen gun — something his defence lawyer referred to as a “primitive weapon.”

 

He fired the gun in the air to frighten the clerk and get her to hand over the money in the till — about $74. Then, he went outside and tried to pump gas, only to discover the clerk hadn’t turned the pump on for him. Angrily, he fired the gun at the glass window toward the clerk on the other side, then sped off.

Raposo then led police on a high-speed chase through Transcona, along Regent Avenue, then west of Lagimodiere Boulevard as officers tried to arrest him. He fired his gun at them at least twice, reloading each time, prompting them to return fire. He was arrested after he hit police spikes on Springfield Road and crashed his Honda Civic into a snowbank.

Raposo told the judge he’d like to apologize to the gas-station clerk and the officers involved.

“I just wish I can change everything, but I can’t. I was in a bad state and I had bad decisions,” he said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay