Two charged in Stony Mountain riot slaying

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This article was published 21/07/2023 (837 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Corrections officers are scouring the cells of Stony Mountain Institution for homemade weapons, as security intelligence staffers interview those involved in a riot Monday that left a convicted killer dead and seven other inmates injured.

The brawl between about 50 rival gang members, many armed with edged weapons, in the outdoor exercise yard at the federal prison north of Winnipeg began at around 6:15 p.m., and lasted for about 20 minutes, a corrections union official said Friday.

Officers quelled the chaos with pepper spray and warning shots — shooting and injuring one prisoner — before Mounties from the nearby Stonewall RCMP detachment arrived to assist.

Two corrections officers fired live ammunition, RCMP said Friday.

On Thursday, RCMP investigators charged inmates Terrell Smith, 40, of Quebec, and Christopher Brass, 40, of Winnipeg, with first-degree murder in the slaying of Colton Patchinose, 33.

Patchinose was serving time for three 2008 killings, and three attempted murders, among other convictions.

Smith has no court record in Manitoba.

Brass was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder in Winnipeg and first-degree murder in Regina, committed two months apart in 2017, court records show.

Union of Canadian Correctional Officers prairie region president James Bloomfield said prison officials and employees are trying to determine what exactly sparked the deadly melee.

RCMP said Friday they are also investigating.

“We’re still in the investigation phase. They still haven’t got a ‘Here’s exactly what went down,’” Bloomfield said, adding officers and security intelligence department know the violence — multiple inmates were stabbed — was between rival gangs.

“The idea here would be to interview every single inmate individually, and then put the story together… Some may reveal things, some won’t speak at all.”

Bloomfield said intelligence officers will liaise with the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP gang units to determine if the riot was sparked by gang tensions from outside prison walls, and notify provincial jails and law enforcement agencies to prevent the any such tensions overflowing elsewhere.

He said the federal facility is still in partial lockdown.

“At this point, we’ve got everyone fairly closed down. There’s minimal movement within the institution at this point. They’re just trying to ensure that the weapons and everything is out of there.”

RCMP said Mounties seized about 50 weapons from inmates.

About 100 inmates were in the outdoor exercise area at the time of the violence. The rated capacity for Stony Mountain is 797, according to Correctional Service Canada’s website.

Bloomfield said operations at the institution — which he called one of Canada’s most violent — need to change, but exactly what that would look like is yet to be determined.

“First of all, we’ve got to control that property more. The drugs that are being thrown over the fence of that institution, it’s been an ongoing issue for over 25 years,” the union official said.

“The reaction from Corrections Canada is very, very low.”

A spokesman for the federal prison authority said it is working with its partners, including police, to share further ideas and practices to stop the flow of drugs into prisons.

The spokesman said the CSC considers safety and security top priorities.

“We do not tolerate violence in our institutions,” the spokesman said in an email. “When offenders are involved in violent incidents, disciplinary action is taken and/or criminal charges can be laid against the responsible offenders.

“CSC examines each incident of violence to find out how it can better prevent and address these situations in the future.”

Bloomfield argued because corrections officers are no longer able to place inmates into segregation (solitary confinement) as punishment for bad behaviour, inmates feel emboldened.

The use of segregation was abolished in federal prisons in 2019, after court rulings found inmates’ charter rights were being violated, as such isolation had major impacts on mental health and well-being.

It was replaced by a new system dubbed “structured intervention units,” which dictates inmates must be allowed out of their cells for at least four hours a day, with two hours of meaningful contact with another person.

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The CSC spokesman did not respond to questions about the union’s positions on segregation and structured intervention.

Patchinose was serving an indeterminate sentence, after he was convicted in April 2011 of three counts each of first-degree murder and attempted murder with a firearm.

He and a co-accused, both in masks, had barged into a birthday party on Alexander Avenue in Winnipeg on March 29, 2008.

Patchinose fired 18 rounds from a handgun, killing Scott Lavallee, 31, Jennifer Ward, 26, and Corey Keeper, 22. Three others were injured.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.