Men accused of stealing gun used in shooting were guests in RCMP officer’s home

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This article was published 15/09/2017 (2956 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The two men accused of stealing an RCMP officer’s gun and using it to shoot a teen girl in a Winnipeg convenience store parking lot two years ago were invited guests at the officer’s home on the night of the shooting, court heard this week.

Matthew Wilfred McKay and Matthew Andrew Miles, who would later be charged with stealing Manitoba RCMP Sgt. Chris McCuen’s police-issued nine-millimetre Smith & Wesson handgun, had been invited to a party McCuen’s son was throwing in the garage on Oct. 24, 2015.

Both had criminal records and Miles had just been paroled from a Saskatchewan prison less than three months earlier after serving time for robbery.

Miles, 27, pleaded guilty Thursday to theft under $5,000, possession of a restricted weapon and violating a court order that prohibited him from having weapons. He was sentenced to two years less a day in jail going forward, on top of the equivalent to a 19 1/2-month sentence he’s already served behind bars, based on a jointly recommended sentence from Crown and defence lawyers. It is a total sentence of about 3 1/2 years.

After his arrest, Miles told police it was McKay who took the police officer’s gun as he rummaged through the RCMP vehicle parked in the garage, court heard.

McKay is accused of attempted murder for firing the gun into a parked vehicle full of people shortly after midnight. The single bullet struck then-16-year-old Calli Vanderaa in the chest, causing damage to her internal organs and lasting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

McKay is set to go to trial on the charges, including several weapons offences, in November. The allegations against him have not been proven.

Miles admitted he stood outside the RCMP vehicle while items were handed out to him — including a can of bear spray and three handgun magazines, one of which was loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition. According to court documents filed in a related civil lawsuit, Chris McCuen said he locked the police vehicle and kept the keys inside his house. He claimed the gun was properly stored in a locked console and wasn’t visible within the vehicle.

Miles’ defence lawyer, Lori Van Dongen, told court her client maintains “nothing was locked.”

“Mr. Miles was extremely intoxicated, had been using drugs, and I think I can fairly say was not in his right mind when he and Mr. McKay made their way to the truck of the RCMP officer. Mr. Miles is adamant that nothing was locked,” she said.

“The unfortunate thing is, probably none of this would’ve happened if no one was drinking that night, including the son of the RCMP officer, including inviting these people over.”

Miles claimed he and the co-accused then stole bicycles from the garage and rode away with the stolen weapons. They later circled around a parked car in a convenience store parking lot on Autumnwood Drive.

The car was crowded with several passengers, including Vanderaa, and McKay “glared” at them, flashing gang signs, Crown attorney Paul Cooper told court. One of the people in the parked car asked McKay and Miles what they were staring at, Cooper said, when McKay allegedly felt “disrespected” and pulled out the gun and fired.

Miles told the co-accused not to do anything stupid and tried to grab hold of his hands as McKay was pulling out the gun, according to witnesses who were in the parked car and Miles’ statement to police. After the shooting, Miles said he took the gun from McKay and hid it at his house, where police later found it.

“He still can remember the sound of the gun going off, he can still remember that that girl was hurt,” Van Dongen said. “It was never his intention when he first entered that party that night that anybody was going to get hurt, let alone to the extent that this young lady was.”

Just before he was sentenced, Miles apologized for his actions to provincial court Judge Lindy Choy and said he wants to plan for a better future.

The victim’s father, Corey Vanderaa, said he’s frustrated by the many unanswered questions he still has about the case but was impressed Miles took responsibility.

“I’m glad that he didn’t put up a fight and he’s going to do his time. You know, if I were to sit down with that dude for five minutes, I’d tell him, ‘Man, it just ain’t worth it.’ I’m older than him. I went through all that stuff,” Vanderaa said in a phone interview Friday. “It’s too bad that it took something as drastic to happen to my daughter to make him realize it, but hopefully he sticks to his guns and he does what’s right.”

Vanderaa said his daughter is now working toward her goal of becoming a police officer, and is completing her high school education derailed by her recovery in the aftermath of the shooting. He said she still suffers from post-traumatic stress and anxiety.

The Vanderaas sued both accused, as well as Sgt. McCuen and the attorney general of Canada, seeking compensation for the injuries Calli suffered. The lawsuit was discontinued in April 2017. The Vanderaas’ lawyer, Robert Tapper, couldn’t say whether a settlement had been reached. He said only “the case has been resolved satisfactorily to my client.”

After the shooting, the RCMP said it would complete an internal investigation into what happened that night, but the outcome of that investigation hasn’t been publicly released.

A Winnipeg Police Service investigation found no charges should be laid against the RCMP officer.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which was then only four months old, was monitoring the investigation but was not directly involved. It is tasked with investigating serious incidents involving police officers in the province.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay