Man jailed after his weapon used in slaying of stranger

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This article was published 19/12/2023 (690 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Justin McKay said he carried a garden shear blade to protect himself.

Instead, the weapon was used by someone else to kill a stranger during an unprovoked two-on-one attack outside the Salvation Army Booth Centre on Henry Avenue.

McKay, 34, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his part in the Aug. 7, 2021, killing of 60-year-old Owen Pruden. McKay was sentenced last week to just under five years in prison.

“I did not plan any of the events that day … I’m not a killer,” said McKay, who court heard was homeless at the time of the slaying and lives with cognitive challenges.

“I don’t think you are a bad person,” King’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser told McKay.

“You probably wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have a weapon. I get it if you are on the street, you feel you need something to protect yourself, but if you didn’t have that weapon in your backpack, Mr. Pruden would still be alive and you wouldn’t be sitting in jail.”

Jeremiah Zglobicki, the man who stabbed Pruden, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced in March to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years, the minimum period allowed under the Criminal Code.

Security video showed McKay sitting on a bucket outside Booth Centre around 3 p.m., when Pruden, a resident, walked by, stopped briefly to speak to McKay and continued walking.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Pruden “almost instantaneously … swung back towards McKay and approached him again.”

Pruden took off his backpack and removed something he showed to McKay.

McKay reached into his own backpack and pulled out what the agreed statement of facts described as a “bladed weapon,” and elsewhere identified as a single garden shear blade.

Pruden backed away as McKay advanced toward him and shoved him to the ground.

The two men grappled on the ground before Pruden wrested the garden shear from McKay.

That’s when Zglobicki, a stranger to both men who had been sitting behind McKay prior to the attack, “entered the fray for reasons that remain unclear,” said the agreed statement of facts.

Zglobicki walked toward Pruden just as McKay grabbed hold of Pruden’s arms from behind.

“In doing so, McKay exposed both the weapon and Pruden’s torso to Zglobicki,” said the agreed statement of facts.

Zglobicki grabbed the garden shear and, as Pruden “turtled” on the ground, “almost immediately” stabbed him directly in the chest.

McKay released his grip on Pruden and Zglobicki stabbed Pruden two more times, leaving the blade embedded in his chest.

Pruden pulled the knife from his chest, got to his feet briefly before collapsing and pleading for help.

Both attackers ran away before paramedics arrived minutes later and took Pruden to Health Sciences Centre, where he was pronounced dead.

McKay has long struggled with alcohol addiction, has cognitive deficits and had been living on the streets for several months prior to the attack, defence lawyer Matt Raffey told court.

McKay’s sentence was jointly recommended by the Crown and defence.

Keyser said the joint recommendation was “very appropriate,” given McKay’s cognitive challenges and the “unique circumstances” of the case.

McKay received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to 21 months.

Court heard at Zglobicki’s sentencing he had been using methamphetamine around the time of the killing and could offer no explanation why he intervened and attacked Pruden.

“Mr. Zglobicki’s actions in this case are difficult to understand,” King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg said at the time.

“It goes without saying this was a senseless tragedy.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca