Year-long sentence for firebombing immigrants in Blumenort

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This article was published 27/04/2023 (1129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kazar Weitzel lobbed a Molotov cocktail at a home in Blumenort as its residents, a newcomer family from Africa, slept soundly inside.

As the home caught fire, they woke up in fear and managed to scramble to safety. The attack was so traumatizing, they packed up and left, afraid they would be targeted again.

For that May 31, 2020, crime, which Weitzel said was a case of mistaken identity, the 23-year-old has been handed a year-long jail sentence.

Weitzel, who had pleaded guilty to arson with disregard for human life, was sentenced last week after a hearing in December.

“The gravity of the offence is obvious,” wrote provincial court Judge Herbert Lawrence Allen. “A firebombing of a residence in the middle of the night would undoubtedly rank as one of the most traumatic things that could happen to a family.”

Crown prosecutor Lianni Nair had sought an 18-month sentence, calling it a targeted attack.

Defence lawyer Kirk Knudsen had sought a two-year conditional sentence, noting his client’s upbringing in foster care had affected his behaviour.

The judge noted Weitzel told the writer of a pre-sentence report that he had set the wrong home on fire, adding that no one was supposed to be home at his intended target.

“He further added he ‘did not like the guy’ (whose) house he had intended to set fire to. He was unable to explain why he did not like his intended victim,” Allen wrote, quoting the pre-sentence report.

In its victim impact statement, the family described the pain and emotional effect of being attacked.

“We thought that we were unwanted in Canada. We were sick and were emotionally and mentally distraught. We were so terrified such that we could not go out nor visit people,” the statement, quoted in the judge’s decision, reads.

“We are still living in fear at the moment. We wouldn’t know if someone is going to attack us again.”

The judge’s decision noted Steinbach RCMP were called at about 3:47 a.m. to the home on a residential street in Blumenort, a community of about 1,600 just north of Steinbach.

The Rural Municipality of Hanover Fire Department chief was at the scene when two Mounties arrived, and he told the officers a fire bomb had been used on the front door.

The officers saw burn marks up the side of the house and door frame and noticed the smell of gasoline remained.

They spotted a footprint on the door, where it appeared the suspect had tried to kick it in.

A window in the bedroom was also broken, RCMP noted, and officers took broken glass as evidence.

Officers obtained video surveillance of a dark Jeep driving down the street with its headlights out. It was noticed driving the opposite way five minutes later.

Mounties went to the regional hospital to see if anyone had gone for treatment for an injury consistent with broken glass, and identified Weitzel from medical records and surveillance tape.

He had been spotted arriving at the hospital in the Jeep less than two hours after the firebombing.

The judge’s decision said Weitzel was taken into foster care shortly after birth, before his foster parents became his legal guardians when he turned 16.

His foster mother said he had the effects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, though he had not been diagnosed, and the fact he has no relationship with his biological family had a significant effect on him.

She said he had struggled with depression.

Weitzel will be subject to 18 months of supervised probation after leaving jail. He was ordered to attend the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba for an alcohol assessment and abstain from intoxicants.

erik.pindera@winnipegfreepress.com